Security amidst stigma: Exploring HIV and sexual minority stressors through an attachment-based psychotherapy group.

Despite strides in HIV prevention and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender care, comprehensive care centers are of critical importance for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and people with HIV/AIDS who continue to contend with intersecting stigmas and chronic minority stressors. Building on the integrated attachment and sexual minority stress model, we discuss these themes by highlighting a group vignette from an urban psychiatric clinic that has provided affirmative psychotherapy to marginalized communities affected by HIV/AIDS for over 2 decades. The authors have rotated at the clinic as cofacilitators of a weekly, process-oriented group for sexual minority men who are HIV positive or are affected by HIV.

Associations among parental and romantic attachment, personality disorder symptoms, and physical health.

The relations of parental and romantic attachment with physical health symptoms and the mediating role of personality disorder symptoms in those relations were examined in an online survey of US young adults. Latent class analysis identified two groups: occasionally sick and healthier. Insecure attachment was related to being occasionally sick and to personality disorder symptoms (poor reality testing, primitive defenses, and diffused identity).

Robotic stereotactic body radiation therapy for elderly medically inoperable early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.

Introduction: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is being increasingly applied in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) because of its high local efficacy. This study aims to examine survival outcomes in elderly patients with inoperable stage I NSCLC treated with SBRT.

Methods: A total of 31 patients with single lesions treated with fractionated SBRT from 2008 to 2011 were retrospectively analyzed.

Frameless fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery for vestibular schwannomas: a single-institution experience.

Objective: To examine tumor control, hearing preservation, and complication rates after frameless fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) in patients with vestibular schwannomas (VS).

Methods: Thirty-seven patients treated with fractionated SRS from 2002 to 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. Ninety-five percent were treated with 25 Gy in five fractions, targeting a median tumor volume of 1.

Malignant melanoma and radiotherapy: past myths, excellent local control in 146 studied lesions at Georgetown University, and improving future management.

Introduction: Once thought to be radioresistant, emerging cellular and clinical evidence now suggests melanoma can respond to large radiation doses per fraction.

Materials And Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of all patients treated with stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy at Georgetown University Hospital from May 2002 through November 2008 and studied the classic extrapolated total dose corrected for volume (ETD(vol)) model for predicting melanoma tumor response. Region-specific tumor outcomes were categorized by RECIST criteria and local control curves were estimated and analyzed when stratified by ETD(vol) thresholds by use of the Kaplan-Meier method.

Scoring system predictive of survival for patients undergoing stereotactic body radiation therapy for liver tumors.

Background: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is an emerging treatment option for liver tumors. This study evaluated outcomes after SBRT to identify prognostic variables and to develop a novel scoring system predictive of survival.

Methods: The medical records of 52 patients with a total of 85 liver lesions treated with SBRT from 2003 to 2010 were retrospectively reviewed.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy for liver metastases from colorectal cancer: analysis of safety, feasibility, and early outcomes.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. Many patients with CRC develop hepatic metastases as the sole site of metastases.

Single-session and multisession CyberKnife radiosurgery for spine metastases-University of Pittsburgh and Georgetown University experience.

Object: The authors compared the effectiveness of single-session (SS) and multisession (MS) stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for the treatment of spinal metastases.

Methods: The authors conducted a retrospective review of the clinical outcomes of 348 lesions in 228 patients treated with the CyberKnife radiosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Georgetown University Medical Center. One hundred ninety-five lesions were treated using an SS treatment regimen (mean 16.

Risk factors for posttreatment edema in patients treated with stereotactic radiosurgery for meningiomas.

Background: Peritumoral edema is a recognized complication following stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

Objective: To evaluate the risk of posttreatment peritumoral edema following SRS for intracranial meningiomas and determine predictive factors.

Methods: Between 2002 and 2008, 173 evaluable patients underwent CyberKnife or Gamma Knife SRS for meningiomas.

Pulse interleukin-2 with famotidine induces CD56+ lymphocytes in the peripheral blood of patients with metastatic melanoma or kidney cancer.

Increased lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell numbers and cytotoxicity against tumor cell lines have been seen in patients receiving high-dose continuous and bolus infusion interleukin-2 (IL-2) regimens. LAK are CD56 positive on flow cytometry. Daily intravenous doses of IL-2 of 18-21.

Fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery for reirradiation of head-and-neck cancer.

Purpose: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is an appealing treatment option after previous radiotherapy because of its precision, conformality, and reduced treatment duration. We report our experience with reirradiation using fractionated SRS for head-and-neck cancer.

Methods And Materials: From 2002 to 2008, 65 patients received SRS to the oropharynx (n = 13), hypopharynx (n = 8), nasopharynx (n = 7), paranasal sinus (n = 7), neck (n = 7), and other sites (n = 23).

A novel method to display [gal alpha1, 3 gal] antigens on human leukemic cells for preparation of anti-leukemia vaccines.

Background: Expression of the immunostimulatory xenoantigen alphaGal on malignant cells is being investigated as a means to formulate anticancer vaccines. Expression methods have been limited to gene transfer using viral vectors and enzymatic manipulation. We report here a novel method using polyethylene glycol (PEG) to induce plasma membrane fusion between malignant human hematological cells and alphaGal(+) porcine blood cells (PBC) in order to display alphaGal antigens on human cells.

AMP-activated protein kinase promotes human prostate cancer cell growth and survival.

The molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of prostate cancer are poorly understood. AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) is a serine-threonine kinase that is activated in response to the hypoxic conditions found in human prostate cancers. In response to energy depletion, AMPK activation promotes metabolic changes to maintain cell proliferation and survival.

Treatment of malignant tumors of the skull base with multi-session radiosurgery.

Objective: Malignant tumors that involve the skull base pose significant challenges to the clinician because of the proximity of critical neurovascular structures and limited effectiveness of surgical resection without major morbidity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of multi-session radiosurgery in patients with malignancies of the skull base.

Methods: Clinical and radiographic data for 37 patients treated with image-guided, multi-session radiosurgery between January 2002 and December 2007 were reviewed retrospectively.

Treatment of chordomas with CyberKnife: georgetown university experience and treatment recommendations.

Objective: To determine the efficacy and safety of chordoma treatment with CyberKnife (Accuray, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA) stereotactic radiosurgery (CK/SRS).

Methods: Eighteen patients with chordoma were treated with CK/SRS as a primary adjuvant (17 patients) or the only treatment (1 patient).

Treatment of spinal tumors using cyberknife fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery: pain and quality-of-life assessment after treatment in 200 patients.

Objective: Benign and malignant tumors of the spine significantly impair the function and quality of life of many patients. Standard treatment options, including conventional radiotherapy and surgery, are often limited by anatomic constraints and previous treatment. Image-guided stereotactic radiosurgery using the CyberKnife system (Accuray, Inc.

Radical stereotactic radiosurgery with real-time tumor motion tracking in the treatment of small peripheral lung tumors.

Background: Recent developments in radiotherapeutic technology have resulted in a new approach to treating patients with localized lung cancer. We report preliminary clinical outcomes using stereotactic radiosurgery with real-time tumor motion tracking to treat small peripheral lung tumors.

Methods: Eligible patients were treated over a 24-month period and followed for a minimum of 6 months.

Cyberknife radiosurgery for breast cancer spine metastases: a matched-pair analysis.

Background: There are few options for breast cancer patients with spinal metastases recurrent within a previous radiation treatment field. CyberKnife radiosurgery has been used in our institution to treat such patients. To evaluate their outcomes, as there are no comparable radiation treatment options, the outcomes were compared between 18 patients with spinal metastases from breast cancer treated with CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgery, 17 of which had prior radiotherapy to the involved spinal region and were progressing, and 18 matched patients who received conventional external beam radiotherapy (CRT) up-front for spinal metastases.

Complications of thoracic computed tomography-guided fiducial placement for the purpose of stereotactic body radiation therapy.

Purpose: This study examined the complication rates associated with percutaneous fiducial placement for the purpose of stereotactic body radiation therapy of primary and metastatic lung neoplasms.

Patients And Methods: This is a retrospective review of computed tomography (CT) scans and follow-up chest radiographs of 48 consecutive patients who underwent CT-guided percutaneous fiducial placement. The effect of age, sex, number of fiducials placed, and performance of a concomitant biopsy on the complication rates were assessed.

EUS-guided fiducial placement for CyberKnife radiotherapy of mediastinal and abdominal malignancies.

Background: The CyberKnife frameless image-guided stereotactic radiosurgery system delivers radiation doses to tumors with high precision by use of real-time image guidance. Radiographic markers (or fiducials) implanted at the tumor site are used as reference points by the system to target the radiation beams. Diagnostic and interventional EUS have multiple applications in the multidisciplinary approach to tumors.

CyberKnife stereotactic radiosurgical treatment of spinal tumors for pain control and quality of life.

Object: The authors conducted a study to assess safety, pain, and quality of life (QOL) outcomes following CyberKnife radiosurgical treatment of spinal tumors.

Methods: Data obtained in all patients with spinal tumors who underwent CyberKnife radiosurgery at Georgetown University Hospital between March 2002 and March 2003 were analyzed. Patients underwent examination, visual analog scale (VAS) pain assessment, and completed the 12-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12) before treatment and at 1, 3, 6, 8, 12, 18, and 24 months following treatment.

Combined external beam radiotherapy and Pd-103 brachytherapy boost improves biochemical failure free survival in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer: results of a matched pair analysis.

Background: Dose escalation has resulted in improved biochemical control in patients with clinically localized prostate cancer treated with conformal external beam radiation (EBRT). Conformal dose distributions may also be achieved with brachytherapy. Therefore, biochemical control was evaluated for patients treated with combined external radiation therapy and low dose rate brachytherapy (EBRT + LDR).