Purpose: The increased risk of breast cancer (BC) among women receiving chest radiotherapy for Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) is well-established. However, there are no large population-based studies that describe overall survival (OS) and cause-specific survival (CSS) compared with women with first primary BC.
Methods: For 298 HL survivors who developed BC (HL-BC group) and 405,223 women with a first or only BC (BC-1 group), actuarial OS and CSS were compared, accounting for age, BC stage, hormone receptor status, sociodemographic status, radiation for HL, and other variables.
Background: Pericardial adhesions are a pathophysiological marker of constrictive pericarditis (CP), which impairs cardiac filling by limiting the total cardiac volume compliance and diastolic filling function. We studied diastolic transmitral flow efficiency as a new parameter of filling function in a pericardial adhesion animal model. We hypothesized that vortex formation time (VFT), an index of optimal efficient diastolic transmitral flow, is altered by patchy pericardial-epicardial adhesions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To analyze patient and tumor characteristics, and survival of patients who received 2 courses of radiotherapy for different primary head and neck cancers (HNCs).
Methods: A total of 234 patients who underwent 2 courses of radiotherapy for different primary, localized, or regional HNCs registered in the population-based Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database were identified.
Results: The latency between first and second irradiated HNCs ranged from 0.
Purpose: To evaluate perfusion parameter changes in patients with glioblastoma multiforme by comparing the perfusion magnetic resonance (MR) imaging measurements obtained before combined radiation and temozolomide therapy (RT-TMZ) with the follow-up MR imaging measurements obtained 1 month after completion of this treatment.
Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval was obtained, and HIPAA guidelines were followed. The data of 36 patients (24 male [median age, 63 years]; 12 female [median age, 59 years]) with glioblastoma multiforme who were treated with RT-TMZ were retrospectively reviewed.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
November 2010
Purpose: To determine recurrence patterns of glioblastoma treated with temozolomide-based chemoradiation.
Methods: Pretreatment and serial posttreatment magnetic resonance imaging scans of 54 patients were retrospectively evaluated. Central recurrence (i.
Purpose: Palliative chest radiotherapy (RT) for lung malignancies is effective in relieving serious chest symptoms from tumor bleeding or mass effect on major airways, vessels, and nerves. Albeit an important subject, there is a lack of consensus for an optimal palliative RT regimen. We report the outcomes of a split-course palliative chest RT, a frequently used schema at our institution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo characterize the overall survival (OS) and cause specific survival (CSS), and variables affecting outcome, in patients with primary spinal cord astrocytoma (SCA) and ependymoma (SCE). About 664 patients with SCA and 1,057 patients with SCE were analyzed using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database. For grade 1, 2, 3 and 4 SCA, the 5-year OS was 82, 70, 28 and 14%; the 5-year CSS was 89, 77, 36 and 20%.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We sought to characterize and describe the patterns of distant recurrence in patients with macroscopic oligometastases, limited in number (
Methods: Seventy-seven patients enrolled on prospective studies of SBRT for oligometastases are included in the present analysis. All available radiography and records were retrospectively reviewed to determine the timing and location of recurrences.
Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the records of pediatric dental patients treated under general anesthesia to determine if there had been any significant change in preoperative diagnoses between 1990-99 and 2000-08.
Study Design: The records of 3298 pediatric dental patients treated in the operating room under general anesthesia at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Children's Hospital were examined and medical diagnoses recorded. The number of cases treated by calendar year was obtained.
The spine is the most common site for bone metastases. Spinal metastases can impact quality of life by causing severe pain, limitation of motion, and increased requirements for pain medication. Radiation therapy is a common form of treatment reserved for palliation of pain and for prevention or treatment of spinal cord compression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To investigate the toxicity and outcome after moderately hypofractionated stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for central thoracic lesions.
Methods: Fifty-three patients undergoing 63 courses of SBRT for central thoracic lesions were retrospectively reviewed. Ninety-eight lesions received 30-63 Gy in 2.
Purpose: This retrospective study was done to better understand the conditions for which stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for glioblastoma may be efficacious.
Methods: Between 2000 and 2007, 33 patients with a pathological diagnosis of glioblastoma received SRS with the Novalis Shaped Beam Radiosurgery system. Eighteen patients (54%) underwent salvage SRS for recurrence while 15 (45%) patients received upfront SRS following standard fractionated RT for newly diagnosed glioblastoma.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
September 2009
Purpose: To investigate the dosimetry and outcomes of patients undergoing stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for metastases to the adrenal glands.
Methods And Materials: At the University of Rochester, patients have been undergoing SBRT for limited metastases since 2001. We retrospectively reviewed 30 patients who had undergone SBRT for adrenal metastases from various primary sites, including lung (n = 20), liver (n = 3), breast (n = 3), melanoma (n = 1), pancreas (n = 1), head and neck (n = 1), and unknown primary (n = 1).
Background: The formation of a vortex alongside a diastolic jet signifies an efficient blood transport mechanism. Vortex formation time (VFT) is an index of the optimal conditions for vortex formation. It was hypothesized that left ventricular (LV) afterload impairs diastolic transmitral flow efficiency and therefore shifts the VFT out of its optimal range.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Analysis of intraventricular flow force and efficiency is a novel concept of quantitatively assessing left ventricular (LV) hemodynamic performance. We have parametrically characterized diastolic filling flow by early inflow force, late inflow force, and total inflow force and by vortex formation time (VFT), a fundamental parameter of fluid transport efficiency. The purpose of this study was to determine what changes in inflow forces characterize a decrease in diastolic blood transport efficiency in acute moderate elevation of LV afterload.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStereotactic body radiation (SBRT) is an emerging tool in radiation oncology in which the targeting accuracy is improved via the detection and processing of a three-dimensional coordinate system that is aligned to the target. With improved targeting accuracy, SBRT allows for the minimization of normal tissue volume exposed to high radiation dose as well as the escalation of fractional dose delivery. The goal of SBRT is to minimize toxicity while maximizing tumor control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA dramatic disorder tentatively attributed to diencephalic-hypothalamic damage or dysfunction, dysautonomia, affects recovery from brain injury. Its incidence, correlation with etiology, and relevance as a predictor of outcome were retrospectively surveyed in 333 patients in vegetative state (VS) for more than 2 weeks at admission. Outcome was assessed according to the Glasgow Outcome Scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
March 2009
Purpose: A subset of patients treated with curative-intent stereotactic radiotherapy (RT) for limited metastases (defined as five lesions or fewer) develop local failure and/or a small number of new lesions. We hypothesized that these patients would remain amenable to curative-intent treatment with additional RT courses.
Methods And Materials: Of 121 prospective patients with five lesions or fewer treated with stereotactic RT, 32 underwent additional RT courses for local failure (n = 9) and/or new lesions (n = 29).
Purpose: Prospective pilot study to assess patient outcome after stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for limited metastases from breast cancer.
Methods: Forty patients with < or =5 metastatic lesions received curative-intent SBRT, while 11 patients with >5 lesions, undergoing SBRT to < or =5 metastatic lesions, were treated with palliative-intent.
Results: Among those treated with curative-intent, 4-year actuarial outcomes were: overall survival of 59%, progression-free survival of 38% and lesion local control of 89%.
Focus groups are increasingly employed in clinical practice as their flexible structure permits the range and depth of experiences of health service users and chronically ill individuals to be explored and recorded. A focus group workshop on quality of life was held in March 2007 involving a group of patients either awaiting transplantation, following transplantation, or with a family member who had already undergone renal replacement therapy (RRT). After intensive discussion the group produced the following consensus points.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
December 2008
Purpose: To characterize oligometastases in patients enrolled on two prospective pilot studies, treating oligometastases with hypofractionated stereotactic body radiotherapy and stereotactic radiosurgery to cranial lesions.
Methods And Materials: We describe the characteristics and local control (LC) of 293 lesions in 121 patients with five or fewer metastases treated with stereotactic body radiation and/or cranial stereotactic radiosurgery. For each lesion, the primary cancer site, tumor histology, site of metastasis, gross tumor volume, and prescribed dose were ascertained.
Background: It is hypothesized that oligometastatic disease represents a state of potentially curable, limited metastases. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is an option for patients who are not amenable to or do not want resection.
Methods: From 2001 to 2006, 121 patients with < or =5 detectable metastases were enrolled in 2 prospective studies that used curative-intent SBRT.
Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc
March 2008
Assessment of left ventricular (LV) function with an emphasis on contractility has been a challenge in cardiac mechanics during the recent decades. The LV function is usually described by the LV pressure-volume (P-V) diagram. The standard P-V diagrams are easy to interpret but difficult to obtain and require invasive instrumentation for measuring the corresponding volume and pressure data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSkull base, including optic nerve, cavernous sinus, clival and foramen magnum tumors represent a major challenge for neurosurgeons and neuro-oncologists. Growth regulatory signaling pathways for these tumors are of increasing interest as potential targets for new chemotherapy. Those differentially activated in various grades of meningiomas are currently being identified as well.
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