Systematic Review of Models of Effective Community Specialist Palliative Care Services for Evidence of Improved Patient-Related Outcomes, Equity, Integration, and Health Service Utilization.

The benefits of palliative care programs are well documented. However, the effectiveness of specialist palliative care services is not well established. The previous lack of consensus on criteria for defining and characterizing models of care has restrained direct comparison between these models and limited the evidence base to inform policy makers.

Relapse patterns after low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy.

Purpose: When biochemical failure (BF) develops after low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy, the relapse site is frequently not found. We set out to find whether prostate-specific membrane antigen positron emission tomography -CT (PSMA PET-CT) scanning has improved knowledge of relapse patterns.

Methods And Materials: A database was analyzed, which contained information and long-term followup on 903 men who had an iodine-125 seed implant as monotherapy for early-stage prostate cancer.

Validation of Varian's SmartAdapt® deformable image registration algorithm for clinical application.

Background: Re-contouring of structures on consecutive planning computed tomography (CT) images for patients that exhibit anatomical changes is elaborate and may negatively impact the turn-around time if this is required for many patients. This study was therefore initiated to validate the accuracy and usefulness of automatic contour propagation for head and neck cancer patients using SmartAdapt® which is the deformable image registration (DIR) application in Varian's Eclipse™ treatment planning system.

Methods: CT images of eight head and neck cancer patients with multiple planning CTs were registered using SmartAdapt®.

MR-guided prostate biopsy for planning of focal salvage after radiation therapy.

Purpose: To determine if the integration of diagnostic magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and MR-guided biopsy would improve target delineation for focal salvage therapy in men with prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: Between September 2008 and March 2011, 30 men with biochemical failure after radiation therapy for prostate cancer provided written informed consent and were enrolled in a prospective clinical trial approved by the institutional research ethics board. An integrated diagnostic MR imaging and interventional biopsy procedure was performed with a 1.

Patterns of failure after iodine-125 seed implantation for prostate cancer.

Purpose: To determine the site of relapse when biochemical failure (BF) occurs after iodine-125 seed implantation for prostate cancer.

Materials And Methods: From 2001-2009, 500 men underwent implantation in Wellington, New Zealand. Men who sustained BF were placed on relapse guidelines that delayed restaging and intervention until the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) was ⩾20 ng/mL.

Improving survival disparities in cervical cancer between Māori and non-Māori women in New Zealand: a national retrospective cohort study.

Objective: Māori women in New Zealand have higher incidence of and mortality from cervical cancer than non-Māori women, however limited research has examined differences in treatment and survival between these groups. This study aims to determine if ethnic disparities in treatment and survival exist among a cohort of Māori and non-Māori women with cervical cancer.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 1911 women (344 Māori and 1567 non-Māori) identified from the New Zealand Cancer Register with cervical cancer (adenocarcinoma, adenosquamous or squamous cell carcinoma) between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 2006.

A case report of langerhans histiocytosis presenting sequentially over a 21-year period with Letterer-Siwe disease, hand-Schuller-Christian disease and eosinophillic granuloma of bone.

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a very rare disorder, and usually considered a disease of childhood. The adult form of LCH is even rare, and in some case may be considered to represent delayed presentation of a pathologic process beginning in childhood. This case report highlights the range of presentations of LCH possible even in a single patient, and supports the contention that some adult LCH cases may be due to delayed presentation of childhood LCH.