Publications by authors named "Kate Skehan"

We present a case of an 80-year-old male who attended an MRI scan for his prostate cancer radiotherapy planning. His safety screening did not identify any contraindications to our department's MRI safety policy; however, his MRI images displayed significant susceptibility artefacts in the sigmoid colon and rectum and were not clinically acceptable. Further history revealed he had begun regularly taking curcumin supplements at the time of his prostate cancer diagnosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Liver cirrhosis disrupts liver function and tissue perfusion, detectable by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Assessing liver function at the voxel level with 13-b value intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI) could aid in radiation therapy liver-sparing treatment for patients with early impairment. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of IVIM-DWI for liver function assessment and correlate it with other multiparametric (mp) MRI methods at the voxel level.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • MRI-only planning workflows have benefits but face image guidance challenges; this study explored using MRI for guiding treatment with Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT).
  • Ten radiation therapists were trained and assessed on their ability to match MRI with CBCT across various anatomical regions, using data from multiple patients.
  • Results showed minimal differences in matching accuracy based on therapists' experience, indicating that focused training can effectively integrate MRI to CBCT guidance in clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Accurately defining gross tumour volume (GTV) and organs at risk (OAR) is key to successful radiation therapy (RT) treatment outcomes for patients with gynaecological cancers. With improved access to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for RT simulation and planning, the optimisation and tailoring of proven diagnostic MRI techniques towards RT specific planning goals is fast evolving. Modifying MRI techniques for radiation oncology (RO) with the priority of anatomy visualisation and spatial location over diagnosis and disease characterisation relies heavily on successful collaboration between radiology and radiation oncology staff.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is being increasingly used to improve radiation therapy planning by allowing visualisation of organs at risk that cannot be well-defined on computed tomography (CT). Diagnostic sequences are increasingly being adapted for radiation therapy planning, such as the use of heavily T2-weighted 3D SPACE (Sampling Perfection with Application optimised Contrasts using different flip angle Evolution) sequence for cranial nerve identification in head and neck tumour treatment planning.

Methods: A 3D isotropic T2 SPACE sequence used for cranial nerve identification was adapted for radiation therapy purposes.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has proven value in radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP). MRI provides excellent soft tissue contrast, and improves lesion detection, definition and extent, allowing for increased conformal treatment. Recent installation of dedicated MRI simulators and MRI-guided linear accelerators (MR Linacs) within radiation oncology departments has led to a sudden and rapid expansion in the scope of practice for many radiation therapists and MRI radiographers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: In this study, we aimed to investigate the feasibility of gadoxetate low-temporal resolution (LTR) DCE-MRI for voxel-based hepatic extraction fraction (HEF) quantification for liver sparing radiotherapy using a deconvolution analysis (DA) method.

Methods: The accuracy and consistency of the deconvolution implementation in estimating liver function was first assessed using simulation data. Then, the method was applied to DCE-MRI data collected retrospectively from 64 patients (25 normal liver function and 39 cirrhotic patients) to generate HEF maps.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Researchers aimed to validate a hybrid method for creating synthetic computed tomography (sCT) from MRI scans, focusing on both male and female patients with pelvic cancers, as prior studies were mostly limited to male anatomy.
  • They analyzed data from 40 patients (20 males and 20 females) using a multi-atlas local weighted voting method to generate sCT images and compared dosimetric outcomes against traditional CT scans.
  • Results showed high agreement between treatment plans on CT and sCT, with similar dose differences and gamma agreement scores for both genders, indicating that MRI-only treatment planning is feasible for pelvic malignancies in both males and females.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background And Purpose: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-only treatment planning is gaining in popularity in radiation oncology, with various methods available to generate a synthetic computed tomography (sCT) for this purpose. The aim of this study was to validate a sCT generation software for MRI-only radiotherapy planning of male and female pelvic cancers. The secondary aim of this study was to improve dose agreement by applying a derived relative electron and mass density (RED) curve to the sCT.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: The prostatic urethra is an organ at risk for prostate radiotherapy with genitourinary toxicities a common side effect. Many external beam radiation therapy protocols call for urethral sparing, and with modulated radiotherapy techniques, the radiation dose distribution can be controlled so that maximum doses do not fall within the prostatic urethral volume. Whilst traditional diagnostic MRI sequences provide excellent delineation of the prostate, uncertainty often remains as to the true path of the urethra within the gland.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_sessionau87rgo6e0bgqalnbmid6jdsc2480oes): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once