How to protect the proximal bronchial tree during stereotactic radiotherapy of ultracentral lung tumors: Lessons from MR-guided treatment.

Purpose: To use imaging data from stereotactic MR-guided online adaptive radiotherapy (SMART) of ultracentral lung tumors (ULT) for development of a safe non-adaptive approach towards stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) of ULT.

Patients And Methods: Analysis is based on 19 patients with ULT who received SMART (10 × 5.0-5.

Hematologic Toxicity Profiles and the Impact of Hemoglobin Nadir and Transfusion on Oncologic Outcome in Definitive Radiochemotherapy for Cervical Cancer.

: Definitive radiochemotherapy with concomitant cisplatin 40 mg/m weekly represents the standard of care for locally advanced cervical cancer. Current studies (KEYNOTE-A18 and INTERLACE) are intensifying this regimen at the cost of increased hematologic toxicity. We aimed to evaluate influencing factors on hematotoxicity to ensure the safe application of radiochemotherapy.

Cardiac arrhythmias during and after thoracic irradiation for malignancies.

Background: Cardiac arrhythmia has been reported as a significant complication of thoracic radiotherapy. Both bradyarrhythmias and tachyarrhythmias have been reported, highlighting the arrhythmia-modulating potential of radiation in certain oncologic therapies. This study aimed to analyse the arrhythmic burden in patients with cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIEDs) undergoing thoracic irradiation, examining both immediate effects of radiotherapy and long-term sequelae post-therapy.

Clinical Outcomes of Online Adaptive Magnetic Resonance-Guided Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy of Adrenal Metastases from a Single Institution.

(1) Background: Recent publications foster stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) in patients with adrenal oligometastases or oligoprogression. However, local control (LC) after non-adaptive SBRT shows the potential for improvement. Online adaptive MR-guided SBRT (MRgSBRT) improves tumor coverage and organ-at-risk (OAR) sparing.

Intrafraction organ movement in adaptive MR-guided radiotherapy of abdominal lesions - dosimetric impact and how to detect its extent in advance.

Introduction: Magnetic resonance guided radiotherapy (MRgRT) allows daily adaptation of treatment plans to compensate for positional changes of target volumes and organs at risk (OARs). However, current adaptation times are relatively long and organ movement occurring during the adaptation process might offset the benefit gained by adaptation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dosimetric impact of these intrafractional changes.

Helium Ion Therapy for Advanced Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma.

Helium ion therapy (HRT) is a promising modality for the treatment of pediatric tumors and those located close to critical structures due to the favorable biophysical properties of helium ions. This in silico study aimed to explore the potential benefits of HRT in advanced juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (JNA) compared to proton therapy (PRT). We assessed 11 consecutive patients previously treated with PRT for JNA in a definitive or postoperative setting with a relative biological effectiveness (RBE) weighted dose of 45 Gy (RBE) in 25 fractions at the Heidelberg Ion-Beam Therapy Center.

Fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy of intracranial postoperative cavities after resection of brain metastases - Clinical outcome and prognostic factors.

Background And Purpose: After surgical resection of brain metastases (BM), radiotherapy (RT) is indicated. Postoperative stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) reduces the risk of local progression and neurocognitive decline compared to whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT). Aside from the optimal dose and fractionation, little is known about the combination of systemic therapy and postoperative fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (fSRT), especially regarding tumour control and toxicity.

Stereotactic ultrahypofractionated MR-guided radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer - Acute toxicity and patient-reported outcomes in the prospective, multicenter phase II trial.

Background: Due to superior image quality and daily adaptive planning, MR-guided stereotactic body radiation therapy (MRgSBRT) has the potential to further widen the therapeutic window in radiotherapy of localized prostate cancer. This study reports on acute toxicity rates and patient-reported outcomes after MR-guided adaptive ultrahypofractionated radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer within the prospective, multicenter phase II trial.

Materials And Methods: A total of 69 patients with localized prostate cancer underwent MRgSBRT with daily online plan adaptation.

Clinical Workflow of Cone Beam Computer Tomography-Based Daily Online Adaptive Radiotherapy with Offline Magnetic Resonance Guidance: The Modular Adaptive Radiotherapy System (MARS).

Purpose: The Ethos (Varian Medical Systems) radiotherapy device combines semi-automated anatomy detection and plan generation for cone beam computer tomography (CBCT)-based daily online adaptive radiotherapy (oART). However, CBCT offers less soft tissue contrast than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This work aims to present the clinical workflow of CBCT-based oART with shuttle-based offline MR guidance.

Daily AI-Based Treatment Adaptation under Weekly Offline MR Guidance in Chemoradiotherapy for Cervical Cancer 1: The AIM-C1 Trial.

(1) External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and concurrent chemotherapy, followed by brachytherapy (BT), offer a standard of care for patients with locally advanced cervical carcinoma. Conventionally, large safety margins are required to compensate for organ movement, potentially increasing toxicity. Lately, daily high-quality cone beam CT (CBCT)-guided adaptive radiotherapy, aided by artificial intelligence (AI), became clinically available.

Patterns of Temporal Lobe Reaction and Radiation Necrosis after Particle Radiotherapy in Patients with Skull Base Chordoma and Chondrosarcoma-A Single-Center Experience.

Background: The current study aims to evaluate the occurrence of temporal lobe reactions and identify possible risk factors for patients who underwent particle therapy of the skull base.

Methods: 244 patients treated for skull base chordoma ( = 144) or chondrosarcoma ( = 100) at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center (HIT) using a raster scan technique, were analyzed. Follow-up MRI-scans were matched with the initial planning images.

Exploring Helium Ions' Potential for Post-Mastectomy Left-Sided Breast Cancer Radiotherapy.

Proton therapy presents a promising modality for treating left-sided breast cancer due to its unique dose distribution. Helium ions provide increased conformality thanks to a reduced lateral scattering. Consequently, the potential clinical benefit of both techniques was explored.

Efficacy and toxicity of bimodal radiotherapy in WHO grade 2 meningiomas following subtotal resection with carbon ion boost: Prospective phase 2 MARCIE trial.

Background: Novel radiotherapeutic modalities using carbon ions provide an increased relative biological effectiveness (RBE) compared to photons, delivering a higher biological dose while reducing radiation exposure for adjacent organs. This prospective phase 2 trial investigated bimodal radiotherapy using photons with carbon-ion (C12)-boost in patients with WHO grade 2 meningiomas following subtotal resection (Simpson grade 4 or 5).

Methods: A total of 33 patients were enrolled from July 2012 until July 2020.

Proton Therapy for Advanced Juvenile Nasopharyngeal Angiofibroma.

Purpose: To provide the first report on proton radiotherapy (PRT) in the management of advanced nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (JNA) and evaluate potential benefits compared to conformal photon therapy (XRT).

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 10 consecutive patients undergoing PRT for advanced JNA in a definitive or postoperative setting with a relative biological effectiveness weighted dose of 45 Gy in 25 fractions between 2012 and 2022 at the Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Center. Furthermore, dosimetric comparisons and risk estimations for short- and long-term radiation-induced complications between PRT plans and helical XRT plans were conducted.

Long-Term Clinical Results of MR-Guided Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy of Liver Metastases.

(1) Background: Magnetic-resonance (MR)-guided stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) allows for ablative, non-invasive treatment of liver metastases. However, long-term clinical outcome data are missing. (2) Methods: Patients received MR-guided SBRT with a MRIdian Linac between January 2019 and October 2021 and were part of an ongoing prospective observational registry.

Pulmonary magnetic resonance-guided online adaptive radiotherapy of locally advanced: the PUMA trial.

Background: Patients with locally-advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) are often ineligible for surgery, so that definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) represents the treatment of choice. Nevertheless, long-term tumor control is often not achieved. Intensification of radiotherapy (RT) to improve locoregional tumor control is limited by the detrimental effect of higher radiation exposure of thoracic organs-at-risk (OAR).

Palliative Radiotherapy for Symptomatic Locally Advanced Breast Cancer.

Women with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) or inoperable local recurrence often suffer from a significantly reduced quality of life (QOL) due to local tumor-associated pain, bleeding, exulceration, or malodorous discharge. We aimed to further investigate the benefit of radiotherapy (RT) for symptom relief while weighing the side-effects. Patients who received symptom-oriented RT for palliative therapy of their LABC or local recurrence in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Heidelberg University Hospital between 2012 and 2021 were recorded.

MR-Class: A Python Tool for Brain MR Image Classification Utilizing One-vs-All DCNNs to Deal with the Open-Set Recognition Problem.

Background: MR image classification in datasets collected from multiple sources is complicated by inconsistent and missing DICOM metadata. Therefore, we aimed to establish a method for the efficient automatic classification of MR brain sequences.

Methods: Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) were trained as one-vs-all classifiers to differentiate between six classes: T1 weighted (w), contrast-enhanced T1w, T2w, T2w-FLAIR, ADC, and SWI.

To fly or not to fly: Stereotactic MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy effectively treats ultracentral lung tumors with favorable long-term outcomes.

Background: Stereotactic radiotherapy of ultracentral lung tumors (ULT) is challenging as it may cause overdoses to sensitive mediastinal organs with severe complications. We aimed to describe long-term outcomes after stereotactic magnetic resonance (MR)-guided online adaptive radiotherapy (SMART) as an innovative treatment of ULT.

Patients & Methods: We analyzed 36 patients that received SMART to 40 tumors between 02/2020 - 08/2021 inside prospective databases.