Image-Guided Proton Therapy: A Comprehensive Review.

Image guidance for radiation therapy can improve the accuracy of the delivery of radiation, leading to an improved therapeutic ratio. Proton radiation is able to deliver a highly conformal dose to a target due to its advantageous dosimetric properties, including the Bragg peak. Proton therapy established the standard for daily image guidance as a means of minimizing uncertainties associated with proton treatment.

Neurotrophin Pathway Receptors NGFR and TrkA Control Perineural Invasion, Metastasis, and Pain in Oral Cancer.

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients suffer from poor survival due to metastasis or locoregional recurrence, processes that are both facilitated by perineural invasion (PNI). OSCC has higher rates of PNI than other cancer subtypes, with PNI present in 80% of tumors. Despite the impact of PNI on oral cancer prognosis and pain, little is known about the genes that drive PNI, which in turn drive pain, invasion, and metastasis.

Brain-Specific Relative Biological Effectiveness of Protons Based on Long-term Outcome of Patients With Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Purpose: Uncertainties in relative biological effectiveness (RBE) constitute a major pitfall of the use of protons in clinics. An RBE value of 1.1, which is based on cell culture and animal models, is currently used in clinical proton planning.

Hypofractionated Proton Therapy in Early Prostate Cancer: Results of a Phase I/II Trial at Loma Linda University.

Purpose: To determine whether a hypofractionated proton therapy regimen will control early-stage disease and maintain low rates of side effects similar to results obtained using standard-fraction proton therapy at our institution.

Materials And Methods: A cohort of 146 patients with low-risk prostate cancer according to National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines (Gleason score <7, prostate-specific antigen [PSA] <10, tumor stage of T1-T2a) received 60 Gy (cobalt Gy equivalent) of proton therapy (20 fractions of 3.0 Gy per fraction) in 4 weeks, a dose biologically equivalent to standard fractionation (44-45 fractions of 1.

Surgical and radiation therapy management of recurrent anal melanoma.

Background: Melanoma of the anorectal mucosa is a rare but highly aggressive tumor. Its presenting symptoms are frequently confused with hemorrhoids, thereby causing a delay in diagnosis. Anorectal melanoma carries with it a very poor prognosis.

Palliative radiation therapy for primary gastric melanoma.

Introduction: Primary gastric melanoma is an exceedingly rare cause of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (GI bleeding). Prior reports of primary gastric melanoma have mostly been treated with surgery with utilization of radiation therapy being unreported. Radiation therapy has been used to palliate bleeding of other cancers including lung, bladder, cervix, and more recently primary gastric cancers.

The prognostic value of percentage of positive biopsy cores, percentage of cancer volume, and maximum involvement of biopsy cores in prostate cancer patients receiving proton and photon beam therapy.

Unlabelled: The purpose of this study was to compare the prognostic value of the percentage of positive biopsy cores (PPBC), the percentage of cancer volume (PCV), and the maximum involvement of biopsy cores (MIBC) as a prognostic factor in low- and intermediate-risk patients with clinically localized prostate cancer who received proton or photon beam therapy. Four hundred and fifty-nine patients with clinically localized prostate carcinoma who were treated with proton or photon beam therapy at Loma Linda University Medical Center were used for this analysis. Patients were treated with a median dose of 74.

Space-relevant radiation modifies cytokine profiles, signaling proteins and Foxp3+ T cells.

Purpose: The major goal was to evaluate effects of various radiation regimens on leukocyte populations relatively long-term after whole-body irradiation.

Materials And Methods: C57BL/6 mice were exposed to-low-dose/low-dose rate (LDR) (57)Co γ-rays (0.01 Gy, 0.