Health Utility of Pain Response Versus Nonresponse to Palliative Radiation Therapy for Symptomatic Bone Metastases: Analyses Based on Real-World Data from 26 Centers.

Utility values of responders and nonresponders are essential inputs in cost-effectiveness studies of radiation therapy for painful bone metastases but, to our knowledge, they have not been reported separately. We sought to determine the utility values of responders and nonresponders using data from a prospective observational study on bone metastases. The original prospective observational study was conducted at 26 centers in Japan.

Factors associated with quality of life in patients receiving palliative radiotherapy for bone metastases: a secondary cross-sectional analysis of data from a prospective multicenter observational study.

Objective: To identify factors significantly associated with quality of life (QOL) and determine if these associations are strong enough to predict certain aspects of QOL without measuring them.

Methods: We conducted an exploratory secondary analysis of baseline data of 224 patients (enrolled between December 2020 and March 2021) from a previously published prospective observational study on radiotherapy for bone metastases at 26 centres. Using univariable linear regression, we assessed the association between patient/treatment factors and QOL scale scores as measured by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QOL Questionnaire Core 15-Palliative (QLQ-C15-PAL) and the EORTC QOL Questionnaire Bone Metastases module (QLQ-BM22).

Income and Employment of Patients at the Start of and During Follow-up After Palliative Radiation Therapy for Bone Metastasis.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to understand the income and employment status of patients at the start of and during follow-up after palliative radiation therapy for bone metastasis.

Methods And Materials: From December 2020 to March 2021, a prospective multi-institutional observational study was conducted to investigate income and employment of patients at the start of administration of radiation therapy for bone metastasis and at 2 and 6 months after treatment. Of 333 patients referred to radiation therapy for bone metastasis, 101 were not registered, mainly because of their poor general condition, and another 8 were excluded from the follow-up analysis owing to ineligibility.

[Retroperitoneal Dedifferentiated Liposarcoma with No Recurrence after 5 Years of Postoperative Radiation Therapy --A Case Report-].

A 49-year-old woman presented to our hospital with right lower back pain and epigastric pressure. A computed tomographic scan showed a 12×7×20 cm retroperitoneal mass comprising fatty components and contrast areas around the right kidney. Based on the results, a right retroperitoneal liposarcoma was suspected.

Quality Indicators in Palliative Radiation Oncology: Development and Pilot Testing.

Purpose: A quality indicator (QI) is a valuable tool to evaluate the quality of health care systems. In palliative radiation oncology, only a few related QIs have been developed to date. In this study, we sought to develop and pilot test QIs that assess the quality of care in palliative radiation therapy.

Palliative brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy for dysphagia from esophageal cancer: a nationwide survey in Japan.

Background: International guidelines recommend brachytherapy for patients with dysphagia from esophageal cancer, whereas brachytherapy is infrequently used to palliate dysphagia in some countries. To clarify the availability of palliative treatment for dysphagia from esophageal cancer and explain why brachytherapy is not routinely performed are unknown, this study investigated the use of brachytherapy and external beam radiotherapy for dysphagia from esophageal cancer.

Methods: Japanese Radiation Oncology Study Group members completed a survey and selected the treatment that they would recommend for hypothetical cases of dysphagia from esophageal cancer.

Practice patterns for postoperative radiation therapy in patients with metastases to the long bones: a survey of the Japanese Radiation Oncology Study Group.

Evidence regarding postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) for metastases to the long bones is lacking. Characterizing the current practice patterns and identifying factors that influence dose-fractionation schedules are essential for future clinical trials. An internet-based survey of the palliative RT subgroup of the Japanese Radiation Oncology Study Group was performed in 2017 to collect data regarding PORT prescription practices and dose-fractionation schedules.

A phase II study of palliative radiotherapy combined with zoledronic acid hydrate for metastatic bone tumour from renal cell carcinoma.

Purpose: Palliative radiotherapy is the standard of care for bone metastases. However, skeletal-related events, defined as a pathologic fracture, paraplegia, surgery or radiotherapy for local recurrence, or severe pain in previously irradiated bone with radio-resistant histology type still present high incidence. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether zoledronic acid hydrate and palliative radiotherapy could prevent local skeletal-related events.

[Palliative Radiotherapy for Bone Metastases].

Bone metastasis is associated with many symptoms such as bone pain, pathological fracture, and spinal cord compression. Especially, pain secondary to bone metastases is a serious problem in many patients with metastatic cancer. Radiotherapy can provide remarkable pain relief, reduce the requirement for analgesic drugs, and prevent pathological fracture or spinal cord compression with few complications in most patients.

Impact of intraluminal brachytherapy on survival outcome for radiation therapy for unresectable biliary tract cancer: a propensity-score matched-pair analysis.

Purpose: To determine whether adding intraluminal brachytherapy (ILBT) to definitive radiation therapy (RT) for unresectable biliary tract cancer has a positive impact on survival outcome.

Methods And Materials: The original cohort comprised 209 patients, including 153 who underwent external beam RT (EBRT) alone and 56 who received both ILBT and EBRT. By matching propensity scores, 56 pairs (112 patients) consisting of 1 patient with and 1 patient without ILBT were selected.

Variability in the point to which single direct field irradiation is prescribed for spinal bone metastases: a survey of practice patterns in Japan.

Direct single fields are commonly used in radiotherapy for spinal bone metastases, and it is crucial to define the point for which the dose is prescribed. According to the guidelines from the International Bone Metastases Consensus Working Party (IBMCWP) updated in 2010, different opinions exist on whether this therapy should be prescribed to the mid-vertebral or anterior vertebral body. To our knowledge, no previous studies have surveyed practice patterns regarding this discrepancy.

Patterns of practice in palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases: a survey in Japan.

Purpose: To determine the current patterns of practice in Japan and to investigate factors that may make clinicians reluctant to use single-fraction radiotherapy (SF-RT).

Methods And Materials: Members of the Japanese Radiation Oncology Study Group (JROSG) completed an Internet-based survey and described the radiotherapy dose fractionation they would recommend for four hypothetical cases describing patients with painful bone metastasis (BM). Case 1 described a patient with an uncomplicated painful BM in a non-weight-bearing site from non-small-cell lung cancer.

The treatment outcome of patients undergoing breast-conserving therapy: the clinical role of postoperative radiotherapy.

Background: Treatment outcome was evaluated in patients who underwent breast-conserving therapy and tangential irradiation. After verifying background factors including systemic therapy, the clinical efficacy of postoperative irradiation was investigated.

Method: There were 708 study subjects, all of whom had early breast cancer treated between 1992 and 2002.

Brachytherapy for oral tongue cancer: an analysis of treatment results with various biological markers.

Objective: Low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy is an effective treatment for tongue cancer. However, little is known about the biological mechanism underlying this therapy, characterized by delivery of continuous exposures of LDR irradiation. It is reported that lower microvessel density (MVD), lower Ki-67 index or higher expression of endogenous hypoxic markers such as carbonic CA IX and Glut-1 are related to the poor control of tumors treated with external irradiation.

A clinical study of hypoxia using endogenous hypoxic markers and polarographic oxygen electrodes.

Purpose: To examine various kinds of endogenous hypoxia markers' expression in the tissues of uterine cervix cancer and to elucidate the characteristics and pitfalls when they are used as a hypoxia marker, by comparing these expressions with tumor oxygen partial pressure (pO2) values.

Patients And Methods: Assessment of pO2 using polarographic oxygen electrodes was performed in 69 patients with cervix carcinomas. Biopsies were taken from the region of electrode measurements.

A phase I/II study of nedaplatin and 5-fluorouracil with concurrent radiotherapy in patients with esophageal cancer.

Purpose: To determine the recommended dose (RD) of cis-diammine-glycolatoplatinum (nedaplatin) when given concurrently with 5-FU and high dose radiation therapy in the treatment of esophageal cancer. The purpose of the phase II trial is to determine efficacy and further define the side effect profile.

Methods: Twenty-six patients with clinical stage I to IVA squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus were enrolled in a non-surgical treatment comprised of a fixed dose of fluorouracil (400 mg/m2 administered as continuous intravenous infusion on days 1-5 and days 8-12) plus escalating doses of nedaplatin (40 mg/m2 in level 1, 50 mg/m2 in level 2, or 60 mg/m2 in level 3 on days 1 and 8), repeated twice every 3 weeks with concurrent radiotherapy (60 Gy).

Three cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the mandible treated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

Case Report: We report three cases of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma of the mandible and a review of the literature. All 3 of our patients had stage I AE disease and had complete remission for more than 2 years after 42-46 Gy of irradiation to the primary tumor with regional lymph nodes and 3 courses of chemotherapy consisting of cyclophosphamide, adriamycin, vincristine, and predonisolone (CHOP). Literature analysis, although biased toward published data, indicated that the 3-year disease-specific survival rates for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) of the mandible were 90.

Analysis of local control in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma according to the WHO classification.

Purpose: To analyze the influence of radiotherapy doses, chemotherapy doses, and clinical parameters on in-field disease control to assess the optimal radiation doses for treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma according to the newly proposed WHO classification.

Patients And Methods: Subjects consisted of 35 extranodal marginal-zone B-cell lymphomas of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) type, 75 diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL), 14 follicular lymphomas, 17 extranodal natural killer (NK)/T-cell lymphomas, nasal type, eight unclassified peripheral T-cell lymphomas, four anaplastic large-cell lymphomas, T/null cell type, and five others. 59 patients received radiotherapy alone.

Expression of matrix metalloproteinase 9 is a prognostic factor in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Background: Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) represents a heterogeneous group of tumors that vary with regard to their biologic aggressiveness and clinical course. In in vitro studies, matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) was reportedly expressed by human NHL cells and elevated levels of MMP9 have been observed in a subset of patients with high-grade NHL.

Methods: The expression of MMP2 and MMP9 was evaluated in 158 patients with NHL and the relation between the expression of these proteins and clinicopathologic factors was analyzed.

The changes in irradiated salivary gland function of patients with head and neck tumors treated with radiotherapy.

Background: To investigate and analyze changes in irradiated salivary gland function of patients with head and neck tumors treated with radiotherapy.

Methods: Thirty-seven patients with head and neck tumors, who received 40-70 Gy of irradiation to all major salivary glands, were analyzed. The weights of saliva secreted for 10 minutes at rest, and for 5 minutes with vitamin C stimulation, were measured.

High-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy: results of analyses of late rectal complications.

Purpose: To examine the incidence of radiation-induced late rectal complications by analyzing the data of measured rectal doses in patients with cancer of the uterine cervix treated with high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy.

Methods And Materials: We measured doses to the rectum in 105 patients with cancer of the cervix during high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy with a semiconductor dosimeter that can measure five points in the rectum simultaneously. On the basis of these measurements, equivalent doses, to which the biologically equivalent doses were converted as if given as fractionated irradiation at 2 Gy/fraction, were calculated as components of the cumulative dose at five rectal points in intracavitary brachytherapy combined with the external whole pelvic dose.

Results of external irradiation and low-dose-rate intraluminal brachytherapy for esophageal cancer.

The results of definitive radiotherapy to elucidate the optimal doses of external irradiation (ERT) and low-dose-rate intraluminal brachytherapy (ILBT) were analyzed. Between 1979 and 1998, 100 patients with esophageal cancer were treated with ERT and ILBT. ERT was given at a dose of 40-65 Gy/25-32 fractions and ILBT at 10-24.

High-dose-rate versus low-dose-rate intracavitary therapy for carcinoma of the uterine cervix: a randomized trial.

Background: This was a prospective randomized clinical trial undertaken at our institution to compare low-dose-rate (LDR) intracavitary radiation therapy versus high-dose-rate (HDR) intracavitary radiation therapy for the treatment of cervical carcinoma.

Methods: From January 1984 to December 1997, a total of 132 patients with Stage II or IIIB of invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix were entered into this randomized study. Treatment arm by HDR or LDR was allocated according to the month of each patient's birth.