Breast cancer risk models represent the likelihood of developing breast cancer based on risk factors. They enable personalized interventions to improve screening programs. Radiologists identify mammographic density as a significant risk factor and test new imaging techniques.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of ultrahypofractionated radiotherapy to the prostate bed in patients with biochemical and/or clinical relapse following radical prostatectomy who were enrolled in the prospective, observational, multicentric POPART trial (NCT04831970).
Methods: Patients with post-radical prostatectomy PSA levels of ≥0.1-2.
We describe the case of a patient with a clinical and molecular diagnosis of Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome (BWS) and a clinical, radiologic and histologic diagnosis of colon isolated hypoganglionosis. BWS is a genetic multisystem disorder characterized by generalized and lateralized overgrowth, macroglossia, abdominal wall defects, neonatal hypoglycemia and predisposition to embryonal tumors (Brioude et al., Nat Rev Endocrinol 1998; 14:229-249).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUltrasound scores are used to determine whether thyroid nodules should undergo Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) or simple clinical follow-up. Different scores have been proposed for this task, with the American College of Radiology (ACR) TIRADS system being one of the most widely used. This study evaluates its ability in triaging thyroid nodules deserving FNA on a large prospective monocentric Italian case series of 493 thyroid nodules from 448 subjects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLombardy has represented the Italian and European epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although most clinical efforts within hospitals were diverted towards the care of virally infected patients, therapies for patients with cancer, including radiotherapy (RT), have continued. During both the first and second pandemic waves, several national and regional organizations provided Italian and Lombardian RT departments with detailed guidelines aimed at ensuring safe treatments during the pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Italy experienced one of the world's severest COVID-19 outbreak, with Lombardy being the most afflicted region. However, the imposed safety measures allowed to flatten the epidemic curve and hence to ease the restrictions and inaugurate, on the 4th of May 2020, the Italian phase (P) 2 of the pandemic. The present survey study, endorsed by CODRAL and AIRO-L, aimed to assess how radiotherapy (RT) departments in Lombardy have dealt with the recovery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: To evaluate the use of radiotherapy (RT) for oligometastatic cancer (OMC) among radiation oncologists in Lombardy, Italy.
Methods And Study Design: A survey with 12 items regarding data of 2016 was sent to all 34 Lombardy RT centers. The survey included six general items and six specific items regarding patient/disease/treatment characteristics.
Introduction:: Several efforts are being implemented at the European level to measure provision of up-to-date radiation treatments across the continent.
Methods:: A snapshot survey involving all radiation oncology centers within Lombardy, Italy, was performed in 2012 and repeated in 2014 and 2016, in cooperation with regional governmental officers. Centers were asked to provide detailed information concerning all individual patients being treated on the index day, and to report data on available local resources.
Purpose: To report our experience with full-dose 21 Gy IORT in early breast cancer patients after breast-conserving surgery to define most important selection factors.
Methods: Seven hundred and fifty eight patients, subjected to conserving surgery and IORT, were retrospectively analyzed evaluating most important clinical outcomes.
Results: Median follow up was 5.
Purpose: To evaluate the efficacy of sodium butyrate enemas (NABUREN) in prostate cancer radiation therapy (RT) in reducing the incidence, severity, and duration of acute RT-induced proctitis.
Methods And Materials: 166 patients, randomly allocated to 1 of 4 groups (rectal sodium butyrate 1 g, 2 g, or 4 g daily or placebo), were treated with NABUREN during and 2 weeks after RT. The grade of proctitis was registered in a daily diary.
Aims And Background: Rectal cancer can be considered a broad-spectrum disease, where the surgeon, radiation oncologist and medical oncologist have a peculiar and specific place in order to work harmoniously as a good orchestra. The reality in common general hospitals is far from that of comprehensive cancer centers, particularly for postoperative approaches. The adjuvant therapy of rectal cancer is not codified worldwide, and it is strongly dependent on preoperative staging procedures, surgeon's acts and pathologist's decisions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims And Background: Informing cancer patients is an ethical, legal and deontological aspect of patient management. Patients need clear instructions in order to be able to accept or refuse medical procedures. Many reports in the literature have shown differences among physicians in informing cancer patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWith the improvements in treatment accuracy the risk exists of over-reliance on the capability of the physician to estimate the extent of the tumour. We assessed the variability between six radiotherapists in defining the planning target volume (PTV) on CT slices for three prostate tumour cases. Percentage differences between measured volumes and mean values calculated for each case ranged from -53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Quality controls in radiotherapy allow to check the correct running of treatment units and to test our procedures. Portal films taken during the first treatment session are used in quality assurance programs to compare scheduled to administered doses.
Material And Methods: To analyze the accuracy of patient positioning in pelvic cancer irradiation, a retrospective study was carried out on 50 treatment schedules carried out at the Radiotherapy Department of S.
Acute pneumonitis following breast irradiation is a rare and transient phenomenon that can be easily managed by drugs. The aim of this study is to evaluate late sequelae on lung, after postoperative radiotherapy (RT) for breast cancer. We were concerned with investigating late radiological findings when very small lung volumes are involved in the irradiated volume.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: A Phase II multicenter trial testing an accelerated regimen of radiotherapy in locally advanced and inoperable cancers of the head and neck, in patients selected on the basis of 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine/DNA flow cytometry-derived tumor potential doubling time (Tpot).
Methods And Materials: From September 1992 to September 1993, 23 patients consecutively diagnosed to have locally advanced, inoperable carcinomas of the oral cavity and the oropharynx, with Tpot of < or = 5 days, received an accelerated radiotherapy regimen (AF) based on a modification of the concomitant boost technique: 2 Gy/fraction once a day, delivered 5 days a week up to 26 Gy, followed by 2 Gy/fraction twice a day, with a 6-h interval, one of the two fractions being delivered as a concomitant boost to reduced fields, up to 66 Gy total dose (off-cord reduction at 46 Gy), shortening the overall treatment time to 4.5 weeks.
We illustrate a radiotherapy treatment chart elaborated to fulfil the necessity for clarity in reporting information about radiotherapeutic treatment. The schematic configuration of the chart results from the experience and the cooperation of physicists, physicians and technicians, and an effort has been made to satisfy Levels 2/3 of the ICRU 50 recommendations. The chart has been divided into four sections corresponding to different kinds of information: a cover sheet, a section containing data about the treatment planning geometry and the console parameters adopted, a section showing dosimetric data, and a section showing treatment data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMinerva Cardioangiol
November 1994
We report on a case of non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) after electrocution. The diagnosis was made on the basis of electrocardiographic and enzymatic changes and was supported by the results of two-dimensional echocardiogram and radio-nuclide scans, showing segmental hypoperfusion and wall motion abnormalities. The patient was followed for over 8 years, evaluating the evolution of cardiac damage with the above tests.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims And Background: The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of stage III non-small cell lung cancer is controversial. The aim of this survey was to investigate the use of this modality in current clinical practice in Lombardy, a highly industrialized region of northern Italy.
Methods: A questionnaire was sent to all 13 radiotherapy centers in Lombardy, covering statistical, clinical, technical and strategical aspects, and the responses were analyzed.
Between 1 March and 30 April (1994) we recorded the errors detected by the physician, the radiographer or the physicist during prescription, preparation and execution phases of 227 treatment plans. The radiation treatment modalities used were the following: (i) single or opposed fields, moulded or not; and (ii) multiple fields or kinetic techniques. The total number of sessions performed is 1613 with the cobalt unit and 2131 with the linear accelerator (total, 3744).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA case is reported of hemolytic anemia following rifampicin administration and complicated by acute renal failure. Furthermore clotting analyses suggested a slight disseminated intravascular coagulation, very likely activated by hemolysis products. Both hemolysis and renal function impairment subsided spontaneously, after the sole withdrawal of rifampin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMarch 1988 through April 1992, three hundred and ninety-six patients affected with bronchogenic carcinoma were treated at the Department of Radiation Oncology of the S. Anna Hospital, Como, Italy. A hundred and ten patients presenting stage-III non-small-cell lung carcinoma were evaluable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOne hundred patients, admitted to the Emergency Unit for paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) with 1:1 AV conduction, atrial fibrillation (af) and flutter (AF) of recent onset (less than 72 hours) were treated with intravenous propafenone (P). The drug was administered at the dose of 70 mg over 5 min, repeated after 10 min if sinus rhythm (SR) was not restored and eventually followed by continuous infusion (0.35-0.
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