Implementation of a patient safety training program in radiation oncology residency: A pilot study.

Purpose: An educational program using Radiation Oncology-Incident Learning System (RO-ILS) was developed to improve safety culture and training for radiation oncology (RO) residents.

Methods: The program included a pre-training assessment, interactive training, integration of residents into quality assurance meetings, and a post-training assessment over a 3 month rotation.

Results: Twelve residents completed the safety training program.

Unsealed Source: Scope of Practice for Radiopharmaceuticals Among United States Radiation Oncologists.

Purpose: Our purpose was to determine the utilization of and barriers to implementation of radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) among U.S. radiation oncologists.

Hippocampal Dosimetry and the Necessity of Hippocampal-Sparing in Gamma Knife Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Extensive Brain Metastases.

Purpose: To characterize hippocampal dosimetry in Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery (GK-SRS) for extensive brain metastases and evaluate the need for hippocampal-sparing in GK-SRS treatment planning.

Methods And Materials: We reviewed 75 GK-SRS plans for the treatment of 4 to 30 brain metastases generated without consideration of the hippocampi. The mean dose, maximum dose to 100% of the volume (D), maximum dose to 40% of the volume (D), and maximum point dose (D, 0.

New Cardiac Abnormalities After Radiotherapy in Breast Cancer Patients Treated With Trastuzumab.

Purpose: To evaluate cardiac imaging abnormalities after modern radiotherapy and trastuzumab in breast cancer patients.

Patients And Methods: All patients treated with trastuzumab and radiotherapy for breast cancer between 2006 and 2014 with available cardiac imaging (echocardiogram or multigated acquisition scan) were retrospectively analyzed. Cardiac abnormalities included myocardial abnormalities (atrial or ventricular dilation, hypertrophy, hypokinesis, and impaired relaxation), decreased ejection fraction > 10%, and valvular abnormalities (thickening or stenosis of the valve leaflets).

The Effectiveness of Intraoperative Clip Placement in Improving Radiation Therapy Boost Targeting After Oncoplastic Surgery.

Purpose: The role of surgical clips as markers of the tumor bed cavity for radiation therapy boost targeting after oncoplastic surgery is not well understood. Therefore, we sought to evaluate whether the placement of surgical clips can reduce interobserver variability in the delineation of the tumor bed cavities of oncoplastic surgery patients and ultimately determine an optimal number of clips to place.

Methods And Materials: We reviewed records of 39 women with breast cancer who underwent oncoplastic breast surgery and adjuvant radiation therapy at our institution.

Late complications of radiation therapy for breast cancer: evolution in techniques and risk over time.

Radiation therapy in combination with surgery, chemotherapy, and endocrine therapy as indicated, has led to excellent local and distant control of early stage breast cancers. With the majority of these patients surviving long term, mitigating the probability and severity of late toxicities is vital. Radiation to the breast, with or without additional fields for nodal coverage, has the potential to negatively impact long term cosmetic outcome of the treated breast as well as cause rare, but severe, complications due to incidental dosage to the heart, lungs and contralateral breast.

Capecitabine as a Radiosensitizer in Adjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer: A Retrospective Study.

Aim: Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest cancer diagnoses and is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for the 20% for whom the tumor is resectable, however, controversy exists over the appropriate adjuvant therapy where local recurrence rates remain strikingly high (50-85%).

Patterns of care of radiation therapy in patients with stage IV rectal cancer: a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results analysis of patients from 2004 to 2009.

Background: According to the 2013 National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, pelvic radiation therapy (RT) is one of the preferred regimens for patients with metastatic rectal cancer (mRC). The objective of this study was to analyze patterns of care and outcomes data for the receipt of RT among patients with mRC using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.

Methods: Patients with stage IV rectal or rectosigmoid cancer were identified in the SEER database (2004-2009).

Locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Looking beyond traditional chemotherapy and radiation.

About a third of all pancreatic cancer is found to be locally advanced at the time of diagnosis, where the tumor is inoperable but remains localized to the pancreas and regional lymphatics. Sadly, this remains a universally deadly disease with progression to distant disease being the predominant mode of failure and average survival under one year. Optimal treatment of these patients continues to be an area of controversy, with chemotherapy alone being the treatment preference in Europe, and chemotherapy followed by chemoradiation in selected patients, preferred in the USA.

Locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

Treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer is palliative, based on chemotherapy and according to response, chemoradiotherapy can be applied. The authors summarize three abstracts (#LBA146, #256 and #303) presented on the 2013 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, which were focused on treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer. A discussion is presented about the different chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy regimens, that move away from gemcitabine-based treatment, and the effort to find less toxic, but efficient therapeutic combinations.

BEDVH-A method for evaluating biologically effective dose volume histograms: application to eye plaque brachytherapy implants.

Purpose: A method is introduced to examine the influence of implant duration T, radionuclide, and radiobiological parameters on the biologically effective dose (BED) throughout the entire volume of regions of interest for episcleral brachytherapy using available radionuclides. This method is employed to evaluate a particular eye plaque brachytherapy implant in a radiobiological context.

Methods: A reference eye geometry and 16 mm COMS eye plaque loaded with (103)Pd, (125)I, or (131)Cs sources were examined with dose distributions accounting for plaque heterogeneities.

The implications of breast cancer molecular phenotype for radiation oncology.

The identification of distinct molecular subtypes of breast cancer has advanced the understanding and treatment of breast cancer by providing insight into prognosis, patterns of recurrence, and effectiveness of therapy. The prognostic significance of molecular phenotype with regard to distant recurrences and overall survival are well established in the literature and has been readily incorporated into systemic therapy management decisions. However, despite the accumulating data suggesting similar prognostic significance for locoregional recurrence, integration of molecular phenotype into local management decision making has lagged.

Breast cancer molecular subtypes in patients with locally advanced disease: impact on prognosis, patterns of recurrence, and response to therapy.

Gene expression profiling has led to the discovery of 4 distinct molecular subtypes of breast cancer: luminal A, luminal B, basal like, and HER2 enriched. Investigation of these subtypes in women with breast cancer has given insight into the heterogeneous biology and outcomes in patients with locally advanced disease. These subtypes have been found to be predictors for survival, response to systemic therapy, and locoregional recurrence.

Filamentous phage integration requires the host recombinases XerC and XerD.

Many bacteriophages and animal viruses integrate their genomes into the chromosomal DNA of their hosts as a method of promoting vertical transmission. Phages that integrate in a site-specific fashion encode an integrase enzyme that catalyses recombination between the phage and host genomes. CTX phi is a filamentous bacteriophage that contains the genes encoding cholera toxin, the principal virulence factor of the diarrhoea-causing Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio cholerae.