First clinical implementation of a highly efficient daily online adapted proton therapy (DAPT) workflow.

This study presents the first clinical implementation of an efficient online daily adaptive proton therapy workflow (DAPT).The DAPT workflow includes awhere aand aare optimized on the planning computed tomography (CT). In the, theis re-optimized on daily images from an in-room CT.

Imaging and AI based chromatin biomarkers for diagnosis and therapy evaluation from liquid biopsies.

Multiple genomic and proteomic studies have suggested that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) respond to tumor secretomes and thus could provide possible avenues for tumor prognosis and treatment evaluation. We hypothesized that the chromatin organization of PBMCs obtained from liquid biopsies, which integrates secretome signals with gene expression programs, provides efficient biomarkers to characterize tumor signals and the efficacy of proton therapy in tumor patients. Here, we show that chromatin imaging of PBMCs combined with machine learning methods provides such robust and predictive chromatin biomarkers.

Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy for Adolescents and Young Adults with Head and Neck Sarcomas.

Purpose: To assess clinical outcomes of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with head and neck sarcomas (HNSs) treated with pencil beam scanning proton therapy (PBSPT) and to report quality of life (QoL).

Materials And Methods: Twenty-eight AYAs (aged 15 to 39 years) with HNS treated between January 2001 and July 2022 at our institution were included. The median age was 21.

Oncological Outcomes, Long-Term Toxicities, Quality of Life and Sexual Health after Pencil-Beam Scanning Proton Therapy in Patients with Low-Grade Glioma.

Purpose: To assess oncological outcomes, toxicities, quality of life (QoL) and sexual health (SH) of low-grade glioma (LGG) patients treated with pencil-beam scanning proton therapy (PBS-PT).

Material And Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 89 patients with LGG (Neurofibromatosis type 1; = 4 (4.5%) patients) treated with PBS-PT (median dose 54 Gy (RBE)) from 1999 to 2022 at our institution.

Quality of Life, Clinical, and Patient-Reported Outcomes after Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy Delivered for Intracranial Grade WHO 1-2 Meningioma in Children and Adolescents.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to report the clinical and patient-reported outcomes of children and adolescents with intracranial meningioma treated with pencil beam scanning proton therapy (PBS-PT).

Material And Methods: Out of a total cohort of 207 intracranial meningioma patients treated with PBS-PT between 1999 and 2022, 10 (4.8%) were children or adolescents aged < 18 years.

Extraction of Interoperable Data from Healthcare Documents by Identifying Common Data Elements: An Analysis of Radiation Therapy Planning CT Physician Order Entry Records.

Introduction: Documentation as well as IT-based management of medical data is of ever-increasing relevance in modern medicine. As radiation oncology is a rather technical, data-driven discipline, standardization, and data exchange are in principle possible. We examined electronic healthcare documents to extract structured information.

An open carbon-phenolic ablator for scientific exploration.

Space exploration missions rely on ablative heat shields for the thermal protection of spacecraft during atmospheric entry flights. While dedicated research is needed for future missions, the scientific community has limited access to ablative materials typically used in aerospace. In this paper, we report the development of the HEFDiG Ablation-Research Laboratory Experiment Material (HARLEM), a carbon-phenolic ablator designed to supply the need for ablative materials in laboratory experiments.

Long Term Outcome and Quality of Life of Intracranial Meningioma Patients Treated with Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy.

The aim of this study was to assess the clinical outcome, including QoL, of patients with intracranial meningiomas WHO grade 1-3 who were treated with Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy (PBS PT) between 1997 and 2022. Two hundred patients (median age 50.4 years, 70% WHO grade 1) were analyzed.

Clinical outcome after pencil beam scanning proton therapy and dysphagia/xerostomia NTCP calculations of proton and photon radiotherapy delivered to patients with cancer of the major salivary glands.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to report the oncological outcome, observed toxicities and normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) calculation for pencil beam scanning (PBS) PT delivered to salivary gland tumour (SGT) patients.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 26 SGT patients treated with PBSPT (median dose, 67.5 Gy(RBE)) between 2005 and 2020 at our institute.

Therapy Resistance of Glioblastoma in Relation to the Subventricular Zone: What Is the Role of Radiotherapy?

Glioblastoma is a highly heterogeneous primary malignant brain tumor with marked inter-/intratumoral diversity and a poor prognosis. It may contain a population of neural stem cells (NSC) and glioblastoma stem cells that have the capacity for migration, self-renewal and differentiation. While both may contribute to resistance to therapy, NSCs may also play a role in brain tissue repair.

Hearing Loss in Cancer Patients with Skull Base Tumors Undergoing Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy: A Retrospective Cohort Study.

To assess the incidence and severity of changes in hearing threshold in patients undergoing high-dose pencil-beam-scanning proton therapy (PBS-PT). This retrospective cohort study included fifty-one patients (median 50 years (range, 13-68)) treated with PBS-PT for skull base tumors. No chemotherapy was delivered.

Clinical Outcome After Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy of Patients With Non-Metastatic Malignant and Benign Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumors.

Objective: Peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNSTs) commonly arise from peripheral nerve roots and grow locally invasive. Malignant PNSTs (mPNSTs) represent aggressive sarcomas of neural origin that can originate from PNSTs. Radiation therapy is commonly used as part of the required multimodal treatment.

Correction: Role of caveolin-1 as a biomarker for radiation resistance and tumor aggression in lung cancer.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

NTCP Modeling for High-Grade Temporal Radionecroses in a Large Cohort of Patients Receiving Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy for Skull Base and Head and Neck Tumors.

Purpose: To develop a normal tissue complication probability model including clinical and dosimetric parameters for high-grade temporal lobe radionecroses (TRN) after pencil beam scanning proton therapy.

Methods And Materials: We included data on 299 patients with skull base and head and neck tumors treated with pencil-beam scan proton therapy, with a total dose of ≥60 Gy (relative biological effectiveness) from May 2004 to November 2018. We considered 9 clinical and 27 dosimetric parameters for the structure-wise modeling of high-grade (grade ≥2) TRN.

Role of caveolin-1 as a biomarker for radiation resistance and tumor aggression in lung cancer.

Radiation therapy plays a major role in the treatment of lung cancer patients. However, cancer cells develop resistance to radiation. Tumor radioresistance is a complex multifactorial mechanism which may be dependent on DNA damage and repair, hypoxic conditions inside tumor microenvironment, and the clonal selection of radioresistant cells from the heterogeneous tumor site, and it is a major cause of treatment failure in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Clinical Outcome of Sacral Chordoma Patients Treated with Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy.

Aims: Sacral chordomas are locally aggressive, radio-resistant tumours. Proton therapy has the potential to deliver high radiation doses, which may improve the therapeutic ratio when compared with conventional radiotherapy. We assessed tumour control and radiation-induced toxicity in a cohort of sacral chordoma patients treated with definitive or postoperative pencil beam scanning proton therapy.

Assessment of Tumor Volume Dynamics and Outcome After Radiosurgery for the Treatment of Vestibular Schwannoma: A Single-Center Experience.

Objective: To assess the factors affecting early local and audiometric outcomes in vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

Study Design: A retrospective review of medical records.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

High frame rate emission spectroscopy for ablation tests in plasma wind tunnel.

This article describes a novel high frame rate emission spectroscopy setup developed for measurements in high enthalpy flow fields. The optical setup and the associated hardware arrangements are described in detail followed by test case data to demonstrate the capability of recording spectral images at 1 kHz frame rate. The new system is based on a classical Czerny-Turner spectrograph but with a particular setup for high frame rate detection using a Generation II intensifier coupled with a high-speed camera.

Vestibular dose correlates with dizziness after radiosurgery for the treatment of vestibular schwannoma.

Background: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has been recognized as a first-line treatment option for small to moderate sized vestibular schwannoma (VS). Our aim is to evaluate the impact of SRS doses and other patient and disease characteristics on vestibular function in patients with VS.

Methods: Data on VS patients treated with single-fraction SRS to 12 Gy were retrospectively reviewed.

Outcomes of adolescents and young adults treated for brain and skull base tumors with pencil beam scanning proton therapy.

Background: The use of proton therapy (PT) in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) is becoming increasingly popular. This study aims to assess the outcomes and late toxicity consequences in AYAs (15-39 years) with brain/skull base tumors treated with pencil beam scanning proton therapy.

Methods: One hundred seventy six AYAs treated curatively at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) were identified.

Outcomes, Prognostic Factors and Salvage Treatment for Recurrent Chordoma After Pencil Beam Scanning Proton Therapy at the Paul Scherrer Institute.

Aims: The outcome of chordoma patients with local or distant failure after proton therapy is not well established. We assessed the disease-specific (DSS) and overall survival of patients recurring after proton therapy and evaluated the prognostic factors affecting DSS.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective analysis was carried out of 71 recurring skull base (n = 36) and extracranial (n = 35) chordoma patients who received adjuvant proton therapy at initial presentation (n = 42; 59%) or after post-surgical recurrence (n = 29; 41%).

Development and prospective in-patient proof-of-concept validation of a surface photogrammetry + CT-based volumetric motion model for lung radiotherapy.

Purpose: We develop and validate a motion model that uses real-time surface photogrammetry acquired concurrently with four-dimensional computed tomography (4DCT) to estimate respiration-induced changes within the entire irradiated volume, over arbitrarily many respiratory cycles.

Methods: A research, couch-mounted, VisionRT (VRT) system was used to acquire optical surface data (15 Hz, ROI = 15 × 20 cm ) from the thoraco-abdominal surface of a consented lung SBRT patient, concurrently with their standard-of-care 4DCT. The end-exhalation phase from the 4DCT was regarded as reference and for each remaining phase, deformation vector fields (DVFs) with respect to the reference phase were computed.

Impact of regular magnetic resonance imaging follow-up after stereotactic radiotherapy to the surgical cavity in patients with one to three brain metastases.

Background: Administering stereotactic radiotherapy to the surgical cavity and thus omitting postoperative whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) is a favored strategy in limited metastatic brain disease. Little is known about the impact of regular magnetic resonance imaging follow-up (MRI FU) in such patient cohorts. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of regular MRI FU and to report the oncological outcomes of patients with one to three brain metastases (BMs) treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or hypo-fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (HFSRT) to the surgical cavity.

Radiosurgery of vestibular schwannoma: prognostic factors for hearing outcome using 3D-constructive interference in steady state (3D-CISS).

Purpose: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is an effective treatment for vestibular schwannoma (VS). Three-dimensional (3D) constructive interference in steady state (CISS) is the preferred magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence for evaluating signal changes in the inner ear endolymph. Previous studies demonstrated a correlation between pretreatment cochlear signal intensity in 3D-CISS and posttherapeutic hearing outcomes.