Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
December 2024
Purpose: Meningiomas are the most common primary intracranial tumor. Somatostatin receptor 2 is almost universally expressed in meningioma tissue. For patients who require adjuvant radiation, somatostatin receptor based (68)Ga-DOTATATE positron emission tomography (PET) imaging can detect additional or residual disease not discernible on magnetic resonance imaging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ARS brain committee recommends that vorasidenib may be appropriate for recurrent or residual IDH-mutant grade 2 oligodendroglioma or astrocytoma. Vorasidenib is usually not appropriate for completely resected grade 2 oligodendroglioma or astrocytoma, any grade 3 oligodendroglioma or astrocytoma, or combined with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy for any grade 2-3 glioma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpine metastases (SMs) are common, arising in 70% of the cases of the most prevalent malignancies in males (prostate cancer) and females (breast cancer). Stereotactic body radiotherapy, or SBRT, has been incorporated into clinical treatment algorithms over the past decade. SBRT has shown promising rates of local control for oligometastatic spinal lesions with low radiation dose to adjacent critical tissues, particularly the spinal cord.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Meningiomas represent the most common primary tumor of the central nervous system. Current treatment options include surgical resection with or without adjuvant radiation therapy (RT), definitive RT, and observation. However, the radiation dose, fractionation, and margins used to treat patients with WHO grade 2 meningiomas, which account for approximately 20% of all meningiomas, are not clearly defined, and deciding on the optimal treatment modality can be challenging owing to the lack of randomized data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging has been useful in delineating tumor volumes and allowing for improved radiation treatment. The field of PET-guided radiotherapy is rapidly growing and will have significant impact on radiotherapy delivery in the future. This narrative review provides an overview of the current state of PET-guided radiotherapy as well as the future directions of the field.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe American Radium Society (ARS) Central Nervous System (CNS) committee reviewed literature on epidermal growth factor receptor mutated (EGFRm) and ALK-fusion (ALK+) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) for the treatment of brain metastases (BrMs) from non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) to generate appropriate use guidelines addressing use of TKIs in conjunction with or in lieu of radiotherapy (RT). The panel developed three key questions to guide systematic review: can radiotherapy be deferred in patients receiving EGFR or ALK TKIs at (1) diagnosis or (2) recurrence? Should TKI be administered concurrently with RT (3)? Two literature searches were performed (May 2019 and December 2023). The panel developed 8 model cases and voted on treatment options using a 9-point scale, with 1-3, 4-6 and 7-9 corresponding to usually not appropriate, may be appropriate, and usually appropriate (respectively), per the UCLA/RAND Appropriateness Method.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Malignant epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC), often presenting with back pain and motor/sensory deficits, is associated with poor survival, particularly when there is loss of ambulation. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the literature and discuss appropriate workup and management of MESCC, specifically in the emergent setting.
Methods: A PubMed search was conducted on "spinal cord compression" and "radiation therapy.
Introduction: 1.5 Tesla (1.5T) remain a significant field strength for brain imaging worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Dose heterogeneity within a tumor target is likely responsible for the biologic effects and local tumor control from spatially fractionated radiation therapy (SFRT). This study used a commercially available GRID-pattern dose mudulated nonuniform radiation therapy (GRID) collimator to assess the interplan variability of heterogeneity dose metrics in patients with various bulky tumor sizes and depths.
Methods And Materials: The 3-dimensional heterogeneity metrics of 14 bulky tumors, ranging from 155 to 2161 cm in volume, 6 to 23 cm in equivalent diameter, and 3 to 13 cm in depth, and treated with GRID collimator-based SFRT were studied.
Background And Objective: As novel systemic therapies allow patients to live longer with cancer, the risk of developing central nervous system (CNS) metastases increases and providers will more frequently encounter emergent presentation of brain metastases (BM) and leptomeningeal metastases (LM). Management of these metastases requires appropriate work-up and well-coordinated multidisciplinary care. We set out to perform a review of emergent radiotherapy (RT) for CNS metastases, specifically focusing on BM and LM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The abscopal effect is a rare phenomenon whereby local radiation induces a proposed immune-mediated anti-tumor effect at distant sites. Given the growing use of immunotherapies and systemic immune checkpoint inhibitors in neuro-oncologic practice, we aimed to review prior studies pertaining to this phenomenon in the context of tumor shrinkage both within the central nervous system as well as distant disease sites.
Methods: A systematic review in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines was conducted to identify all studies which assessed the abscopal effect in patients with treated metastatic cancer to the brain and/or spine.
Purpose: To develop an MR multitasking-based dynamic imaging for cerebrovascular evaluation (MT-DICE) technique for simultaneous quantification of permeability and leakage-insensitive perfusion with a single-dose contrast injection.
Methods: MT-DICE builds on a saturation-recovery prepared multi-echo fast low-angle shot sequence. The k-space is randomly sampled for 7.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
January 2023
Purpose: For children, craniospinal irradiation (CSI) with photons is associated with significant toxic effects. The use of electrons for spinal fields is hypothesized to spare anterior structures but the long-term effects remain uncertain. We studied late effects of CSI using electrons for spinal radiation therapy (RT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain metastases are a challenging manifestation of renal cell carcinoma. We have a limited understanding of brain metastasis tumor and immune biology, drivers of resistance to systemic treatment, and their overall poor prognosis. Current data support a multimodal treatment strategy with radiation treatment and/or surgery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPostoperative management of lower grade gliomas (grade 2 and 3) is heterogeneous. The American Radium Society's brain malignancies panel systematically reviewed and evaluated the literature to develop consensus guidelines addressing timing of postoperative therapy, monotherapy versus combined modality therapy, type of chemotherapy used with radiotherapy, and radiotherapy dose. Thirty-six studies were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Grade of meningioma has significant implications for selecting treatment regimens ranging from observation to surgical resection with adjuvant radiation. For most patients, meningiomas are diagnosed radiologically, and Grade is not determined unless a surgical procedure is performed. The goal of this study is to train a novel auto-classification network to determine Grade I and II meningiomas using T1-contrast enhancing (T1-CE) and T2-Fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) magnetic resonance (MR) images.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with previously irradiated metastatic epidural spinal cord compression (MESCC) who are not surgical candidates are at high risk of neurologic deterioration due to disease in the setting of limited treatment options. We seek to establish the feasibility of using salvage spine stereotactic radiosurgery (SSRS) allowing for spinal cord dose constraint relaxation as the primary management of MESCC in inoperable patients monitoring for radiation related toxicity and radiographic local control (LC).
Methods: Inoperable patients with previously irradiated MESCC were enrolled on this prospective Phase 1 single institution protocol.
Expert Rev Anticancer Ther
March 2022
Introduction: Gestational trophoblastic diseases and neoplasias (GTDs and GTNs) comprise a spectrum of diseases arising from abnormally proliferating placental/trophoblastic tissue following an antecedent molar or non-molar pregnancy. These can spread to the brain hematogenously in about 10% of patients, mostly in high-risk disease. The optimal management of patients with brain metastases from GTN is unclear, with multiple systemic regimens under use and an uncertain role for radiotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurposes: Preimplant diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging is the gold standard for image-guided tandem-and-ovoids (T&O) brachytherapy for cervical cancer. However, high dose rate brachytherapy planning is typically done on postimplant CT-based high-risk clinical target volume (HR-CTV ) because the transfer of preimplant Magnetic resonance (MR)-based HR-CTV (HR-CTV ) to the postimplant planning CT is difficult due to anatomical changes caused by applicator insertion, vaginal packing, and the filling status of the bladder and rectum. This study aims to train a dual-path convolutional neural network (CNN) for automatic segmentation of HR-CTV on postimplant planning CT with guidance from preimplant diagnostic MR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To provide early and localized glioblastoma (GBM) recurrence prediction, we introduce a novel postsurgery multiparametric magnetic resonance-based support vector machine (SVM) method coupling with stem cell niche (SCN) proximity estimation.
Methods And Materials: This study used postsurgery magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 50 patients with recurrent GBM, obtained approximately 2 months before clinically diagnosed recurrence. The main prediction pipeline consisted of a proximity-based estimator to identify regions with high risk of recurrence (HRRs) and an SVM classifier to provide voxelwise prediction in HRRs.
The prognosis for patients diagnosed with recurrent glioblastoma (GBM) remains poor, with no clear standard of care regarding salvage therapy. Common approaches include chemotherapy, re-resection, tumor treating fields, and reirradiation. However, most studies have shown these to have limited benefits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To describe the range of potential side effects associated with modern brain metastasis treatment and provide evidenced-based guidance on the effective management of these side effects.
Background: Brain metastases are the most commonly diagnosed malignant intracranial tumor and have historically been associated with very poor prognosis. The standard treatment for brain metastases until the 1990s was whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) alone.
Objective: Resection of meningiomas in direct contact with the anterior optic apparatus carries risk of injury to the visual pathway. Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) offers a minimally invasive alternative. However, its use is limited owing to the risk of radiation-induced optic neuropathy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) provides a safe and effective therapeutic modality for patients with pituitary adenomas. The mechanism of delayed endocrine deficits based on targeted radiation to the hypothalamic-pituitary axis remains unclear. Radiation to normal neuroendocrine structures likely plays a role in delayed hypopituitarism after SRS.
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