Publications by authors named "John Lucido"
Article Synopsis
- Metastasis-directed spine SBRT has been shown to improve local control and overall survival in selected patients, with a focus on clinical and dosimetric factors influencing local failure rates.
- A study analyzed 522 treatments, highlighting that a minimum dose of 15.3 Gy in single-fraction deliveries significantly improves local control, with local failure rates being lower when this dose is achieved.
- Epidural and soft tissue involvement are significant predictors of local failure, emphasizing the importance of targeting and dosing in SBRT for better treatment outcomes.
Article Synopsis
- Total skin electron beam therapy (TSEBT) is a common treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) but can cause unnecessary side effects; a new method called subtotal skin electron beam therapy (STSEBT) uses a shield to protect healthy skin.
- A study reviewed 32 CTCL patients, with 7 receiving STSEBT and 25 receiving TSEBT, showing a median response rate of 96% and comparable effectiveness between the two methods after a follow-up of about 465 days.
- The findings suggest that STSEBT offers similar treatment benefits while potentially reducing toxicity for CTCL patients with less severe disease compared to traditional TSEBT.
Introduction: Manual review of organ at risk (OAR) contours is crucial for creating safe radiotherapy plans but can be time-consuming and error prone. Statistical and deep learning models show the potential to automatically detect improper contours by identifying outliers using large sets of acceptable data (knowledge-based outlier detection) and may be able to assist human reviewers during review of OAR contours.
Methods: This study developed an automated knowledge-based outlier detection method and assessed its ability to detect erroneous contours for all common head and neck (HN) OAR types used clinically at our institution.
Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy for Pregnant Patients With Brain and Head and Neck Cancers.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
March 2024
Purpose: When radiation therapy is medically necessary for pregnant patients, photon-based treatments (XRT) have traditionally been used, whereas proton radiation therapy (PRT) is avoided due to concerns about neutron dose. This retrospective study analyzes pregnant patients treated with XRT and models the equivalent dose that would have been delivered to the fetus with proton radiation compared with XRT. The purpose of this work is to provide a comprehensive analysis of pencil beam scanning proton therapy (PBS-PRT) for pregnant patients and to evaluate whether PBS-PRT should be the new standard of practice for treating pregnant patients with brain and head and neck cancers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Quantitative bibliometrics are increasingly used to evaluate faculty research productivity. This study benchmarks publication rates for radiation oncologists from highly ranked National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers and reveals how productivity changes over the arc of a career and of the field over time.
Methods And Materials: Peer-reviewed articles from 1970 to 2022 were obtained using Scopus for the 348 radiation oncologists listed as faculty for the top 10 cancer hospitals ranked by US News and World Report in 2022.
Article Synopsis
- Subtotal skin electron beam therapy can help patients with cutaneous lymphoma by focusing radiation on large skin areas while protecting others that have had prior treatment or are cosmetically sensitive.* -
- A customizable shield was developed using acrylic blocks mounted on a steel frame to tailor the treatment and was tested for its effectiveness in shielding patients during therapy.* -
- The shield proved to be user-friendly and effective, reducing electron transmission and maintaining safety without increasing x-ray exposure, making it suitable for personalized treatment in over 30 patients.*
Article Synopsis
- The study examines the use of a deep learning (DL) autosegmentation model to speed up organ-at-risk segmentation in radiation therapy for head and neck cancer, aiming to improve treatment access without sacrificing accuracy.
- Expert radiation oncologists created gold standard (GS) contours on CT images, and a custom 3D U-Net DL model was trained to generate contour predictions, which were then compared to contours made by medical dosimetry assistants (MDAs) in a randomized trial.
- Results showed that using the DL model significantly reduced contouring time by 76% overall and 35% specifically in RO revisions, while the accuracy of DL-generated contours was equal or superior to those revised by MDAs, with 76%
Background: Though metastasis-directed therapy (MDT) has the potential to improve overall survival (OS), appropriate patient selection remains challenging. We aimed to develop a model predictive of OS to refine patient selection for clinical trials and MDT.
Patients And Methods: We assembled a multi-institutional cohort of patients treated with MDT (stereotactic body radiation therapy, radiosurgery, and whole brain radiation therapy).
Background: This study was aimed at developing and validating a decision-making tool predictive of overall survival (OS) for patients receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for spinal metastases.
Methods: Three hundred sixty-one patients at one institution were used for the training set, and 182 at a second institution were used for external validation. Treatments most commonly involved one or three fractions of spine SBRT.
Purpose: This study reports on the risk of radiation-induced myelitis (RM) of the spinal cord from a large single-institutional experience with 1 to 5 fraction stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to the spine.
Methods And Materials: A retrospective review of patients who received spine SBRT to a radiation naïve level at or above the conus medullaris between 2007 and 2019 was performed. Local failure determination was based on SPIne response assessment in Neuro-Oncology criteria.
Development of transparent eye shields for total skin electron beam radiotherapy.
J Appl Clin Med Phys
September 2022
Purpose: For total skin electron (TSE) beam radiation therapy, the anterior eye and conjunctiva can be protected with eye shields to prevent keratitis, xerophthalmia, and cataractogenesis. Conventional metal eye shields can reduce patient balance by obscuring vision and thus increasing the risk for falls. We report on the design, fabrication, and clinical use of transparent acrylic eye shields for TSE.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Pain flares are a common acute toxic effect after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for spine metastasis. We aimed to identify a subset of patients with the highest rate of pain flare after spine SBRT to optimize prophylactic corticosteroid administration.
Methods And Materials: The data set included 428 patients with 610 treatments.
Importance: Vertebral compression fracture (VCF) is a potential adverse effect following treatment with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for spinal metastases.
Objective: To develop and assess a risk stratification model for VCF after SBRT.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort study conducted at a high-volume referral center included 331 patients who had undergone 464 spine SBRT treatments from December 2007 through October 2019.
Background: Ultracentral lung cancers arise near the proximal bronchial tree (PBT), trachea, or esophagus, and have been associated with worse outcomes and increased toxicity after radiotherapy. We sought to associate dosimetric and anatomic factors with oncologic outcomes and toxicities.
Methods: One-hundred ten patients treated with ablative, curative-intent radiotherapy for ultracentral, node-negative, non-small cell lung cancer were included.