Treatment Outcomes and Dose Rate Effects Following Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Vestibular Schwannomas.

Background: Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKRS; Elekta AB) remains a well-established treatment modality for vestibular schwannomas. Despite highly effective tumor control, further research is needed toward optimizing long-term functional outcomes. Whereas dose-rate effects may impact post-treatment toxicities given tissue dose-response relationships, potential effects remain largely unexplored.

Clinical and molecular characteristics of gliosarcoma and modern prognostic significance relative to conventional glioblastoma.

Gliosarcoma is a rare histopathologic variant of glioblastoma traditionally associated with a poor prognosis. While gliosarcoma may represent a distinct clinical entity given its unique histologic composition and molecular features, its relative prognostic significance remains uncertain. While treatment of gliosarcoma generally encompasses the same standardized approach used in glioblastoma, supporting evidence is limited given its rarity.

Whole-brain Irradiation Field Design: A Comparison of Parotid Dose.

Whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT) plays an important role in patients with diffusely metastatic intracranial disease. Whether the extent of the radiation field design to C1 or C2 affects parotid dose and risk for developing xerostomia is unknown. The goal of this study is to examine the parotid dose based off of the inferior extent of WBRT field to either C1 or C2.

Women with epilepsy initiating a progestin IUD: A prospective pilot study of safety and acceptability.

Objective: Effective contraception enables women with epilepsy (WWE) to plan their pregnancies and improve outcomes for themselves and their children. Although popular among all women, complex drug interactions limit the efficacy and safety of oral contraceptives (OCs) for WWE. We sought to explore the safety, acceptability, and pharmacokinetic impact of a progestin-containing intrauterine device (IUD) in WWE.

Reevaluating stereotactic radiosurgery for glioblastoma: new potential for targeted dose-escalation.

Countless therapeutic strategies have been explored over many decades to prevent or slow the progression of glioblastoma. Despite radical changes in radiation management in other malignancies, there have been no major advances in the radiotherapeutic approach to glioblastoma in over 30 years. Past hopes to overcome inherent radioresistance with escalating doses have been met with frustration.

Hypofractionated radiation therapy versus standard fractionated radiation therapy with concurrent temozolomide in elderly patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma.

Purpose: Adjuvant hypofractionated radiation therapy (HRT) for elderly patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma (GBM) is a reasonable option compared with standard fractionation radiation therapy (SFRT). Outcomes in patients receiving HRT in the presence of temozolomide (TMZ) compared with SFRT with TMZ are unclear. We examined HRT for GBM with TMZ in comparison to SFRT with TMZ.

A Modern Radiotherapy Series of Survival in Hispanic Patients with Glioblastoma.

Background: Studies have shown racial differences in cancer outcomes. We investigate whether survival differences existed in Hispanic patients with glioblastoma (GBM) compared with other ethnicities from our modern radiotherapy series, because no study to date has focused on outcomes in this group after radiation therapy.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 428 patients diagnosed with GBM from 1996 to 2014 at our institution, divided into 4 groups based on self-report: white, black, Hispanic, and Asian/Indian.

Young men's preferences for sexually transmitted disease and reproductive health services in San Francisco, California.

We explored STD (sexually transmitted disease) service preferences among 108 African-American adolescent males recruited from a high-morbidity neighborhood. Participants largely preferred to seek care at traditional STD testing venues (86.5%) rather than nontraditional venues.