Radiotherapy activities and technological equipment in Veneto, Italy: a report from the Rete Radioterapica Veneta.

Background: Despite the pivotal role of radiotherapy in oncology, the provision of radiation treatments remains inadequate in many areas of the world. The present report is an assessment conducted among Radiation Oncology centers of Veneto region with the aim to collect information concerning radiotherapy assets and technological equipment availability.

Methods: Data concerning Veneto Radiation Oncology departments about radiotherapy activities, number of treatments, techniques used and radiotherapy machines available were collected.

Automatic genetic planning for volumetric modulated arc therapy: A large multi-centre validation for prostate cancer.

Purpose: The first clinical genetic autoplanning algorithm (Genetic Planning Solution, GPS) was validated in ten radiotherapy centres for prostate cancer VMAT by comparison with manual planning (Manual).

Methods: Although there were large differences among centres in planning protocol, GPS was tuned with the data of a single centre and then applied everywhere without any centre-specific fine-tuning. For each centre, ten Manual plans were compared with autoGPS plans, considering dosimetric plan parameters and the Clinical Blind Score (CBS) resulting from blind clinician plan comparisons.

Automated Computed Tomography-Ultrasound Cross-Modality 3-D Contouring Algorithm for Prostate.

A novel fully automated algorithm is introduced for 3-D cross-modality image segmentation of the prostate, based on the simultaneous use of co-registered computed tomography (CT) and 3-D ultrasound (US) images. By use of a Gabor feature detector, the algorithm can outline in three dimensions and in cross-modality the prostate, and it can be trained and optimized on specific patient populations. We applied it to 16 prostate cancer patients and evaluated the conformity between the automatically segmented prostate contours and the contours manually outlined by an experienced physician, on the CT-US fusion, using the mean distance to conformity (MDC) index.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy for re-irradiation of persistent or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer.

Purpose: To retrospectively assess toxicity and outcome of re-irradiation with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients with recurrent or persistent non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), who were previously treated with radical radiation therapy (50-60 Gy). The secondary endpoint was to investigate whether there are dosimetric parameter predictors of severe radiation toxicity.

Methods And Materials: The analysis was conducted in 17 patients with "in-field" recurrent/persistent centrally located NSCLC, who underwent re-irradiation with SBRT.

Radical pleurectomy/decortication followed by high dose of radiation therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Final results with long-term follow-up.

Purpose: We have previously shown the feasibility of delivering high doses of radiotherapy in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) patients who underwent radical pleurectomy/decortication (P/D) or surgical biopsy. In this report, we present the long-term results of MPM patients treated with radical P/D followed by high doses of radiotherapy.

Methods And Materials: Twenty consecutive MPM patients were enrolled in this prospective study and underwent radical P/D followed by high dose radiotherapy.

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy with tomotherapy in locally advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: a phase I, docetaxel dose-escalation study, with hypofractionated radiation regimen.

Background: Concurrent chemo-radiotherapy is demonstrately superior to sequential chemo-radiotherapy in the treatment of advanced Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer not suitable for surgery. Docetaxel is considered to enhance the cytotoxic effect of radiotherapy on the tumour cells. Tomotherapy (HT) is a novel radiotherapeutic technique, which allows the delivery of Image Guided-IMRT (IG-IMRT), with a highly conformal radiation dose distribution.

A speed of sound aberration correction algorithm for curvilinear ultrasound transducers in ultrasound-based image-guided radiotherapy.

Conventional ultrasound (US) devices use the time of flight (TOF) of reflected US pulses to calculate distances inside the scanned tissues and thus create images. The speed of sound (SOS) is assumed to be constant in all human soft tissues at a generally accepted average value of 1540 m s(-1). This assumption is a source of systematic errors up to several millimeters and of image distortion in quantitative US imaging.

Tomotherapy after pleurectomy/decortication or biopsy for malignant pleural mesothelioma allows the delivery of high dose of radiation in patients with intact lung.

Introduction: This study aimed to assess the safety of high doses of radiation delivered with tomotherapy to the intact lung after radical pleurectomy/decortication or biopsy for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM).

Methods: Twenty-eight patients were enrolled in this prospective study and underwent adjuvant or definitive tomotherapy after radical pleurectomy/decortication (n = 20) or pleural biopsy (n = 8) for MPM. The dose prescribed to the planning target volume, defined as the entire hemithorax, including chest-wall incisions and drain sites and excluding the intact lung, was 50 Gy delivered in 25 fractions.

MMP-13 stimulates osteoclast differentiation and activation in tumour breast bone metastases.

Introduction: The increased bone degradation in osteolytic metastases depends on stimulation of mature osteoclasts and on continuous differentiation of new pre-osteoclasts. Metalloproteinases (MMP)-13 is expressed in a broad range of primary malignant tumours and it is emerging as a novel biomarker. Recent data suggest a direct role of MMP-13 in dissolving bone matrix complementing the activity of MMP-9 and other enzymes.

Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)/Tomotherapy following neoadjuvant chemotherapy in stage IIB-IVA/B undifferentiated nasopharyngeal carcinomas (UCNT): a mono-institutional experience.

To evaluate the outcome of Undifferentiated Nasopharyngeal Carcinomas (UCNT) treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy with Simultaneous Integrated Boost (SIB), following induction chemotherapy. Between January 2006 and June 2009, 52 patients with stage II B-IVA/B UCNT were treated either with linac-IMRT or Tomotherapy. All patients were scheduled to receive three cycles of cisplatin based neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Adaptive radiation therapy in a patient with a massive nodal breast cancer recurrence.

Adaptive radiation therapy (ART) is the next improvement in image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). ART consists in changing treatment delivery to compensate for changes in patient anatomy or tumor volume. The treatment planning is therefore adapted to the new target volume.