Prognostic analysis of radiation-induced liver damage following carbon-ion radiotherapy for hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: Radiation-induced liver damage (RILD) occasionally occurs following carbon-ion radiotherapy (CIRT) for liver tumors, such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), in patients with impaired liver function disease. However, the associated risk factors remain unknown. The present study aimed to determine the risk factors of RILD after CIRT.

Investigation of the efficacy of the change ratio of brain natriuretic peptide for predicting the cardiac effects of chemoradiotherapy on esophageal cancer.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) as a predictor of radiological effects on the heart. A total of 41 patients with esophageal cancer who underwent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) were retrospectively investigated. The BNP levels were measured on the first day of CRT (pre-CRT) and the last day of CRT (post-CRT), and the median concentration of BNP and dosimetric parameters of the heart were calculated.

Impact of low iodine density tumor area ratio on the local control of non-small cell lung cancer through stereotactic body radiotherapy.

Lung cancer with low average iodine density measured via contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) using dual-energy CT technology has shown a reduced local control rate after stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). The current study therefore investigated the relationship between low iodine density tumor area and its ratio and local recurrence after SBRT. Dual-energy CT was performed on the day before SBRT initiation, with a low iodine density tumor area being defined as that with an iodine density of <1.

YC-1 sensitizes the antitumor effects of boron neutron capture therapy in hypoxic tumor cells.

The uptake of boron into tumor cells is a key factor in the biological effects of boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). The uptake of boron agents is suppressed in hypoxic conditions, but the mechanism of hypoxia-induced modulation of suppression of boron uptake is not clear. Therefore, we evaluated whether hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) contributes to attenuation of the antitumor effects of BNCT in hypoxic tumor cells.

The potential failure risk of the cone-beam computed tomography-based planning target volume margin definition for prostate image-guided radiotherapy based on a prospective single-institutional hybrid analysis.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of markerless on-board kilovoltage (kV) cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-based positioning uncertainty on determination of the planning target volume (PTV) margin by comparison with kV on-board imaging (OBI) with gold fiducial markers (FMs), and to validate a methodology for the evaluation of PTV margins for markerless kV-CBCT in prostate image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT).

Methods: A total of 1177 pre- and 1177 post-treatment kV-OBI and 1177 pre- and 206 post-treatment kV-CBCT images were analyzed in 25 patients who received prostate IGRT with daily localization by implanted FMs. Intrafractional motion of the prostate was evaluated between each pre- and post-treatment image with these two different techniques.