Almost one year of COVID-19 pandemic: how radiotherapy centers have counteracted its impact on cancer treatment in Lombardy, Italy. CODRAL/AIRO-L study.

Lombardy has represented the Italian and European epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Although most clinical efforts within hospitals were diverted towards the care of virally infected patients, therapies for patients with cancer, including radiotherapy (RT), have continued. During both the first and second pandemic waves, several national and regional organizations provided Italian and Lombardian RT departments with detailed guidelines aimed at ensuring safe treatments during the pandemic.

MRI only in a patient with prostate cancer with bilateral metal hip prostheses: case study.

Objective: To outline a practical method of performing prostate cancer radiotherapy in patients with bilateral metal hip prostheses with the standard resources available in a modern general hospital. The proposed workflow is based exclusively on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to avoid computed tomography (CT) artifacts.

Case Description: This study concerns a 73-year-old man with bilateral hip prostheses with an elevated risk prostate cancer.

Back to (new) normality-A CODRAL/AIRO-L survey on cancer radiotherapy in Lombardy during Italian COVID-19 phase 2.

Background: Italy experienced one of the world's severest COVID-19 outbreak, with Lombardy being the most afflicted region. However, the imposed safety measures allowed to flatten the epidemic curve and hence to ease the restrictions and inaugurate, on the 4th of May 2020, the Italian phase (P) 2 of the pandemic. The present survey study, endorsed by CODRAL and AIRO-L, aimed to assess how radiotherapy (RT) departments in Lombardy have dealt with the recovery.

Set-up errors and planning target volume margins in head and neck cancer radiotherapy: a clinical study of image guidance with on-line cone-beam computed tomography.

Background: Set-up errors represent a source of uncertainty in head and neck (H&N) cancer radiotherapy. The present study evaluated set-up accuracy with the use of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) in order to establish the proper clinical target volume (CTV) to planning target volume (PTV) margins to be adopted.

Methods: Local set-up accuracy was analysed for 44 H&N cancer patients since the implementation of CBCT.