Increased therapeutic ratio by 18FDG-PET CT planning in patients with clinical CT stage N2-N3M0 non-small-cell lung cancer: a modeling study.

Purpose: With this modeling study, we wanted to estimate the potential gain from incorporating fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) scanning in the radiotherapy treatment planning of CT Stage N2-N3M0 non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Methods And Materials: Twenty-one consecutive patients with clinical CT Stage N2-N3M0 NSCLC were studied. For each patient, two three-dimensional conformal treatment plans were made: one with a CT-based planning target volume (PTV) and one with a PET-CT-based PTV, both to deliver 60 Gy in 30 fractions.

Early versus late chest radiotherapy for limited stage small cell lung cancer.

Background: It is standard clinical practice to combine chemotherapy and chest radiotherapy in treating patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer. However, the best way to integrate both modalities is unclear.

Objectives: To establish the most effective way of combining chest radiotherapy with chemotherapy for patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer in order to improve long-term survival.

Plasma citrulline concentration: a surrogate end point for radiation-induced mucosal atrophy of the small bowel. A feasibility study in 23 patients.

Purpose: Plasma citrulline, a nitrogen end product of glutamine metabolism in small-bowel enterocytes, was suggested as a marker of radiation-induced small-bowel epithelial cell loss in mice after single-dose whole-body irradiation. Our objective was to evaluate the feasibility of citrulline as a marker for radiation-induced small-intestinal mucosal atrophy in patients during and after abdominal fractionated radiotherapy.

Methods And Materials: Twenty-three patients were studied weekly during treatment and at intervals of 2 weeks and 3 and 6 months after treatment by postabsorptive plasma citrulline concentration and clinical toxicity grading.

Literature-based recommendations for treatment planning and execution in high-dose radiotherapy for lung cancer.

Background And Purpose: To review the literature on techniques used in high-dose radiotherapy of lung cancer in order to develop recommendations for clinical practice and for use in research protocols.

Patients And Methods: A literature search was performed for articles and abstracts that were considered both clinically relevant and practical to use. The relevant information was arbitrarily categorized under the following headings: patient positioning, CT scanning, incorporating tumour mobility, definition of target volumes, radiotherapy planning, treatment delivery, and scoring of response and toxicity.

Treatment of intervention sites of malignant pleural mesothelioma with radiotherapy: a Dutch-Belgian survey.

A survey was performed on the radiotherapy practice of malignant pleural mesothelioma in The Netherlands and Belgium in 2002. Thirty-eight out of 47 centres (81%) responded. Prophylactic radiotherapy to intervention sites is given by 32/38 (84%) centres, with all centres offering palliative radiation.

Dose-intensified accelerated vindesine-ifosfamide-cisplatin (VIP) chemotherapy followed by high-dose accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy in patients with pathologically proven stage IIIB non-small cell lung cancer: a feasibility study.

This study shows the feasibility of accelerated vindesine-ifosfamide-cisplatin chemotherapy, immediately followed by intensive radiotherapy to the residual tumour in responding patients, in 16 patients with pathologically proven stage IIIB non-small lung cancer. All toxicities were reversible, with only two of ten patients experiencing grade 3 oesophagitis, no treatment-related deaths and no serious late effects.

Heterotaxy syndrome in an adult, with polysplenia, visceral and cardiovascular malposition.

A rare case of an asymptomatic heterotaxy syndrome associated with dextrocardia is presented in a 45-year-old woman. This anomaly was incidentally discovered on computed tomography and ultrasound of the upper abdomen. Besides the presence of multiple abnormally positioned spleens, right-sided stomach, left-sided liver, short pancreas and venous anomalies, like interrupted left-sided inferior vena cava with azygos continuation, and dextrocardia were seen.

Chest radiotherapy in limited-stage small cell lung cancer: facts, questions, prospects.

Objective And Study Design: Limited-disease small cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC) is initially very sensitive to both radiotherapy and chemotherapy. However, the 5-year survival is generally only 10-15%, with most patients failing with therapy refractory relapses, both locally and in distant sites. The addition of chest irradiation to chemotherapy increases the absolute survival by approximately 5%.

Sequential treatment with vindesine-ifosfamide-platinum (VIP) chemotherapy followed by platinum sensitized radiotherapy in stage IIIB non-small cell lung cancer: a phase II trial.

Purpose: Daily administration of cisplatin concomitant with radiotherapy improved the overall survival in inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in one EORTC study. In this study, we prospectively investigated the efficacy and toxicity of a sequential treatment with three cycles of vindesine-ifosfamide-platinum (VIP) induction chemotherapy, followed by daily cisplatin-sensitized radiotherapy.

Methods: Between June 1993 and June 1995, 23 previously untreated patients with stage IIIB NSCLC with World Health Organization performance status 0 or 1 were included.

The treatment of osseous metastases of hormone-refractory prostate cancer with external beam radiotherapy and Strontium-89.

Metastatic bone disease from hormone-refractory prostate cancer can lead to significant morbidity such as pain, nerve compression and fractures which diminishes the quality of life of these patients substantially. Pain from osteoblastic metastases can significantly be improved by both external radiotherapy and Strontium-89 (89Sr), whereas lytic metastases are only responsive to external irradiation. Pain relief is obtained in approximately 80% of patients.

The influence of neonatal thymectomy on the development of radiation myelopathy in rats.

To investigate the possible contribution of cellular immunity in the development of radiation injury of the central nervous system, Wag/Rij rats were thymectomized at birth and irradiated to the cervical spinal cord at the age of 3 months. At the time of paralysis or at the end of the follow-up period (when rats were 1-year-old) the animals were sacrificed and the mediastinum was examined histologically. In 95% of the neonatally thymectomized animals no thymus was left.

Changes of lymphocyte subsets after local irradiation for early stage breast cancer and seminoma testis: long-term increase of activated (HLA-DR+) T cells and decrease of "naive" (CD4-CD45R) T lymphocytes.

Blood lymphocyte subsets of early breast cancer patients and of men with stage I seminoma of the testis were studied up to 6 years after radiotherapy. Similar results were obtained in the two patient groups. After a temporary decrease, the CD4-w29 or "memory" T cells recovered completely, while the CD4-45R or "naive" T cells remained decreased up to 6 years after irradiation.

A subset of asialo GM1+ cells play a protective role in the occurrence of graft-versus-host disease in mice.

In three different murine models of bone marrow (BM) transplantation the capacity of asialo GM1+ cells to suppress graft-vs-host disease (GVHD) was investigated. In a first model, total lymphoid irradiation (TLI)-treated BALB/C mice were given 1 mg of anti-asialo GM1 antibody. This led to the disappearance of functional suppressor cells after TLI.

Mechanisms involved in the differential recovery of CD4 and CD8 T-lymphocytes after local irradiation in mice.

The mechanisms involved in the differential recovery of CD4 (helper/inducer phenotype) and CD8 (cytotoxic/suppressor phenotype) T-lymphocytes after fractionated local irradiation were investigated. In mice, a better recovery of CD4 cells than of CD8 cells was found, while the reverse has been described in humans. Differences in radiosensitivity between CD4 and CD8 mouse splenocytes could not be found.

Measurement of alloantibody by flow cytometry.

A new method based on flow cytometry has been developed to determine IgG alloantibodies in the serum of immunized rodents. The method utilizes target lymphoid cells, diluted serum and labeled anti-mouse or anti-rat IgG antibodies. In serum from highly immunized animals alloantibodies could be demonstrated up to a dilution of (3 x 10(4))-1 which makes the test approximately 300 times more sensitive than a simultaneously performed complement-dependent cytotoxicity assay (CDCA).

Immunologic changes after loco-regional radiotherapy and fractionated total body irradiation (TBI) in mice.

The immunologic effects of fractionated irradiation to both hind limbs and the tail of adult (2.5-3 months old) male Balb/c mice were investigated. A dose of 34 Gy given in 17 fractions of 2 Gy, 1 fraction per day, 5 days per week, was delivered with a 60Co source.

On the mechanism of hepatic glycogenolysis induced by anoxia or cyanide.

Addition of glucagon to isolated hepatocytes increased glycogenolysis and phosphorylase a in a proportional manner. KCN caused slightly more glycogenolysis at considerably lower levels of phosphorylase a; the discrepancy was most pronounced after pretreatment of the hepatocytes with EGTA. When incubated with tagatose, the hepatocytes accumulated tagatose 1-phosphate, a presumed inhibitor of phosphorylase a.