Cognitive Impairment in Long-Term Survivors of Testicular Cancer More Than 20 Years after Treatment.

Background: Impaired cognition can be a late effect after treatment in long-term testicular cancer (TC) survivors, negatively affecting their daily life. However, little data is available beyond 20 years post-treatment. We assessed cognitive impairment in very long-term TC survivors after CT or RT and compared the results with stage I TC survivors and controls.

Intensified Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Patients with Potentially Resectable Esophageal Cancer: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Neoadjuvant treatment consisting of five cycles of carboplatin and paclitaxel with concurrent radiotherapy (41.4 Gy), followed by esophagectomy, is the standard treatment for resectable esophageal cancer in The Netherlands. It remains unclear whether intensification of neoadjuvant therapy leads to better outcomes.

A new CT-based method to quantify radiation-induced lung damage in patients.

A new method to assess radiation-induced lung toxicity (RILT) using CT-scans was developed. It is more sensitive in detecting damage and corresponds better to physician-rated radiation pneumonitis than routinely-used methods. Use of this method may improve lung toxicity assessment and thereby facilitate development of more accurate predictive models for RILT.

Dynamics of tumor hypoxia assessed by 18F-FAZA PET/CT in head and neck and lung cancer patients during chemoradiation: possible implications for radiotherapy treatment planning strategies.

Introduction: To define the optimal time point for the integration of hypoxia (18)F-FAZA-PET/CT information into radiotherapy treatment planning to benefit from hypoxia modification or dose escalation treatment. Therefore, we performed a prospective cohort study, using serial hypoxic imaging ((18)F-FAZA-PET/CT) prior to and at several time-points during (chemo)radiotherapy (CHRT) in six head and neck squamous cell (HNSCC) and six non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

Methods: The spatio-temporal dynamics of tumor hypoxia and fractional hypoxic volumes (FHV) were evaluated using a voxel-by-voxel analysis based on a (18)F-FAZA-T/B ratio of 1.

Concurrent gemcitabine and 3D radiotherapy in patients with stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: Stage III unresectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is preferably treated with concurrent schedules of chemoradiotherapy, but none is clearly superior Gemcitabine is a radiosensitizing cytotoxic drug that has been studied in phase 1 and 2 studies in this setting. The aim of this study was to describe outcome and toxicity of low-dose weekly gemcitabine combined with concurrent 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT).

Patients & Methods: Treatment consisted of two cycles of a cisplatin and gemcitabine followed by weekly gemcitabine 300 mg/m2 during 5 weeks of 3D-CRT, 60 Gy in 5 weeks (hypofractionated-accelerated).

The impact of gastrointestinal and genitourinary toxicity on health related quality of life among irradiated prostate cancer patients.

Purpose: To determine the impact of late radiation-induced toxicity on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with prostate cancer.

Patients And Methods: The study sample was composed of 227 patients, treated with external beam radiotherapy. Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 3.

Pulmonary oligometastases: metastasectomy or stereotactic ablative radiotherapy?

Background And Purpose: Stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR; or stereotactic body radiotherapy, SBRT) emerges as treatment option for pulmonary oligometastatic disease (OMD), but there are no studies comparing SABR with pulmonary metastasectomy (PME). We analysed consecutive patients referred via a university-hospital based multidisciplinary team.

Material And Methods: Patients were offered PME as first choice and SABR in case they were considered to be less suitable surgical candidates.

PET imaging of tumor hypoxia using 18F-fluoroazomycin arabinoside in stage III-IV non-small cell lung cancer patients.

Unlabelled: Tumor hypoxia hampers the efficacy of radiotherapy because of its increased resistance to ionizing radiation. The aim of the present study was to estimate the potential added clinical value of the specific hypoxia tracer (18)F-fluoroazomycin arabinoside ((18)F-FAZA) over commonly used (18)F-FDG in the treatment of advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: Eleven patients with stage III or stage IV NSCLC underwent (18)F-FDG and (18)F-FAZA PET before chemoradiotherapy.

Hypoxia imaging using Positron Emission Tomography in non-small cell lung cancer: implications for radiotherapy.

Tumour hypoxia is an important contributor to radioresistance. Thus, increasing the radiation dose to hypoxic areas may result in improved locoregional tumour control. However, this strategy requires accurate detection of the hypoxic sub-volume using PET imaging.

Residual ¹⁸F-FDG-PET uptake 12 weeks after stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for stage I non-small-cell lung cancer predicts local control.

Purpose: To investigate the prognostic value of [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) uptake at 12 weeks after stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) for stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods And Materials: From November 2006 to February 2010, 132 medically inoperable patients with proven Stage I NSCLC or FDG-PET-positive primary lung tumors were analyzed retrospectively. SABR consisted of 60 Gy delivered in 3 to 8 fractions.

Survival and quality of life after stereotactic or 3D-conformal radiotherapy for inoperable early-stage lung cancer.

Purpose: To investigate survival and local recurrence after stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) or three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) administered for early-stage primary lung cancer and to investigate longitudinal changes of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) parameters after either treatment.

Methods And Materials: Two prospective cohorts of inoperable patients with T1-2N0M0 primary lung tumors were analyzed. Patients received 70 Gy in 35 fractions with 3D-CRT or 60 Gy in three to eight fractions with SABR.

18F-FDG PET during stereotactic body radiotherapy for stage I lung tumours cannot predict outcome: a pilot study.

Purpose: (18)F-Fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG PET) has been used to assess metabolic response several months after stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer. However, whether a metabolic response can be observed already during treatment and thus can be used to predict treatment outcome is undetermined.

Methods: Ten medically inoperable patients with FDG PET-positive lung tumours were included.

Health-related quality of life in patients surviving non-small cell lung cancer.

Background And Aims: The EuroQol 5D (EQ-5D) is a standardised instrument for measuring health-related quality of life (HRQoL). It provides a utility score for health, and a self-rating of HRQoL (EQ-VAS). In this study, the EQ-5D was used to assess HRQoL in survivors of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

TGFbeta-1 dependent fast stimulation of ATM and p53 phosphorylation following exposure to ionizing radiation does not involve TGFbeta-receptor I signalling.

Background And Purpose: It has been proposed that radiation induced stimulation of ATM and downstream components involves activation of TGFbeta-1 and that this may be due to TGFbeta-1-receptor I-Smad signalling. Therefore, the aim of this study was to clarify the distinct role of TGFbeta-1-receptor I-Smad signalling in mediating ATM activity following radiation exposure.

Materials And Methods: A549 cells were stably transfected with a conditionally regulatable TGFbeta-1 antisense construct (Tet-on-system) to test clonogenic activity following irradiation.

Post-irradiation dietary vitamin E does not affect the development of radiation-induced lung damage in rats.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether application of post-irradiation vitamin E, an anti-oxidant, could prevent the development of radiation induced lung damage. Wistar rats were given vitamin E enriched or vitamin E deprived food starting from 4 weeks after 18Gy single dose irradiation of the right thorax. Neither breathing frequencies nor CT density measurements revealed differences between the groups.