Is There Gender Disparity in RANZCR Radiation Oncology Grants and Prizes Success?

Introduction: Recent RANZCR studies have demonstrated gender disparity in research publication output of both radiation oncology (RO) trainees and specialists, favouring men. The purpose of this project was to examine success rates by gender of grant and prize (G&P) submissions to the RO Research Committee (RORC) to determine if anything needs to be done about the appraisal process to potentially address that disparity.

Methods: College records between 2011 and 2024 (where applicable) were searched by gender for one RO trainee, and two other research manuscript prizes, and two research grant rounds.

Cerebral Hemodynamic Responses to Disease-Modifying and Curative Sickle Cell Disease Therapies.

Background And Objectives: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hemoglobinopathy resulting in hemoglobin-S production, hemolytic anemia, and elevated stroke risk. Treatments include oral hydroxyurea, blood transfusions, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Our objective was to evaluate the neurologic relevance of these therapies by characterizing how treatment-induced changes in hemoglobin (Hb) affect brain health biomarkers.

Cerebral vascular shunting and oxygen metabolism in sickle cell disease.

Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) are at elevated risk of silent cerebral infarcts and strokes; however, they frequently lack established stroke risk factors (eg, macrovascular arterial steno-occlusion) and the mechanisms underlying such events are incompletely characterized. This study evaluated cerebral hemometabolism with respect to imaging markers of vascular shunting in 143 participants with SCD, including 73 pediatric (aged 6-17 years) and 70 adult (aged 18-40 years) participants using 3-Tesla brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Vascular shunting was assessed in each patient using a previously published ordinal venous hyperintensity score (VHS) of 0, 1, or 2 on cerebral blood flow-weighted MRI.

Publication output of RANZCR radiation oncologists in 2022-23.

Introduction: The purpose of this work was to determine the current publication output of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists radiation oncologists (ROs) to serve as a baseline contributing to future assessment of the effectiveness of the College's Research Action Plan 2024-26.

Methods: An online survey was sent to all ROs in the College's member database in March-April 2024 requesting a list of publications between 2022 and 2023. A PubMed search was performed to cross-check the self-reported publications.

Detectability of white matter cerebral blood flow using arterial spin labeling MRI in patients with sickle cell disease: Relevance of flow territory, bolus arrival time, and hematocrit.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common genetic blood disorder, characterized by red cell hemolysis, anemia, and corresponding increased compensatory cerebral blood flow (CBF). SCD patients are at high risk for cerebral infarcts and CBF quantification is likely critical to assess infarct risk. Infarcts primarily localize to white matter (WM), yet arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI, the most common non-invasive CBF approach, has poor WM CBF sensitivity owing to low WM CBF and long WM bolus arrival time (BAT).