Therapeutic guidelines for the treatment of bone metastasis: a report from the American College of Radiology Appropriateness Criteria Expert Panel on Radiation Oncology.

Bone metastases remain a therapeutic challenge because of the diversity of the problems they cause, the relative paucity of data regarding their treatment, and the necessity for management by a multidisciplinary palliative care team. The American College of Radiology convened an Appropriateness Criteria Expert Panel on Radiation Oncology for the treatment of bone metastasis to create representative clinical case scenarios and then rank the appropriate use of treatment modalities as well as the most reasonable radiotherapy dose schema and treatment planning methods. Here we present both the resulting Appropriateness Criteria and the rationale for making these decisions.

Natural History and Management of Isolated Local-Regional Recurrence Following Mastectomy.

The average incidence of isolated local-regional recurrence following modified radical mastectomy is 10% to 20%, but it can be as low as 5% or as high as 40%, depending on the presence or absence of various risk factors. One of the objectives of this article is to discuss how to evaluate the risk of locoregional failure. In addition, although the average overall survival rate following recurrence is approximately 40% at 5 years and 25% at 10 years, individual patient survival varies considerably and depends on a number of fairly well-documented prognostic features that are also discussed here.

Breast conserving surgery and irradiation: the importance of demarcating the excision cavity with surgical clips.

Purpose: To determine whether or not the surgical scar and surgical induration are suitable landmarks for localizing the boost field in the treatment of patients undergoing breast conservation surgery and irradiation.

Methods And Materials: Thirty-five patients had surgical clips placed in the excision cavity at the time of tumor excision. The boost field locations for these patients were determined by encompassing the surgical induration with a minimum 2 cm margin or, when there was no induration, by encompassing the incision scar with a 3 cm margin.