Accelerated hypofractionated radiotherapy schedules in breast cancer: a review of the current literature.

Lumpectomy followed by breast irradiation is an alternative to mastectomy for patients with early-stage breast cancer. The purpose of radiation treatment following lumpectomy is to minimize the risk of recurrent cancer in the treated breast with as little toxicity as possible so that good cosmesis and function are maintained. Conventional fractionation schedules for postlumpectomy radiotherapy give 50 Gy in 2 Gy daily fractions, often with an additional boost to the tumor bed, resulting in treatment being given over 5-7 weeks.

The potential clinical impact of probiotic treatment for the prevention and/or anti-inflammatory therapeutic effect against radiation induced intestinal mucositis. A review.

Although pelvic radiotherapy, either alone or combined with chemotherapy, has proved to be successful in the treatment of patients with rectal, gynecological and urologic cancer, it is not devoid of side effects. Among patients receiving pelvic radiotherapy more than 70% develop acute inflammatory changes causing gastrointestinal symptoms during treatment. The most frequently reported symptom related to radiation-induced intestinal mucositis is diarrhea.

High intratumoural accumulation of stealth liposomal doxorubicin (Caelyx) in glioblastomas and in metastatic brain tumours.

The blood-brain barrier is a major obstacle for the chemotherapeutic drugs to effectively reach primary or secondary brain tumours. Stealth liposomal drugs are highly accumulated in tumoural tissues. In the present study we investigated the relative accumulation of(99m)Tc-DTPA radiolabelled stealth liposomal doxorubicin (Caelyx) in 10 patients with metastatic brain tumours and five patients with brain glioblastoma undergoing radiotherapy.

Subcutaneous administration of amifostine during fractionated radiotherapy: a randomized phase II study.

Purpose: Amifostine (WR-2721) is an important cytoprotective agent. Although intravenous administration is the standard route, pharmacokinetic studies have shown acceptable plasma levels of the active metabolite of amifostine (WR-1605) after subcutaneous administration. The subcutaneous route, due to its simplicity, presents multiple advantages over the intravenous route when amifostine is used during fractionated radiotherapy.