Partial breast brachytherapy after lumpectomy: low-dose-rate and high-dose-rate experience.

Purpose: The use of partial breast brachytherapy (PBB) after lumpectomy for selected patients with early-stage breast cancer reduces the adjuvant radiotherapy treatment time to <1 week. Despite the advantages of accelerated treatment, maintaining an acceptable cosmetic outcome is important. In a cohort of patients who received low-dose-rate (LDR) or high-dose-rate (HDR) PBB after lumpectomy, the clinical characteristics and treatment parameters were analyzed to identify predictors for an unfavorable cosmetic outcome.

Accelerated superfractionated radiotherapy with concomitant boost for locally advanced head-and-neck squamous cell carcinomas.

Purpose: A growing body of evidence supports the efficacy of accelerated superfractionated radiotherapy with concomitant boost for advanced head-and-neck carcinomas. This study represents a single-institution experience, performed to identify the factors influencing tumor control, survival, and toxicity.

Materials And Methods: Between 1988 and 1999, 133 patients with primary squamous cell head-and-neck carcinoma underwent accelerated superfractionated radiotherapy using a concomitant boost.

Radiosensitization of human glioma cells in vitro and in vivo with acyclovir and mutant HSV-TK75 expressed from adenovirus.

Purpose: We recently reported that an adenovirus-expressing mutant HSV-TK75 (AdCMV-TK75) radiosensitized rat syngeneic gliomas in combination with low concentrations of acyclovir (ACV) much more effectively than a virus expressing wild-type herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (HSV-TK). In this report we have examined whether similar radiosensitizing effects are also seen with human glioma cells in vitro and in vivo.

Methods And Materials: Human U87 MG glioma cells were transduced with AdCMV-TK75 and exposed to ACV followed by single-dose irradiation and colony-forming survival assays.