Foot assessment in GP practices for people with diabetes.

Diabetes increases the chance of lower-limb amputation: directly, as a result of ulcers caused by trauma and complicated by lack of sensation; and indirectly, by peripheral vascular disease. In any one patient both causes can occur.

Which prognostic factors influence the outcome of patients with surgically staged endometrial cancer treated with adjuvant radiation?

Purpose: Despite the fact that retrospective reviews have documented pelvic failure rates ranging from 15-20% in patients with high-risk uterine-confined endometrial cancer who have received no or "inadequate" RT, the role of RT has been questioned. We sought to analyze pelvic control and disease-free survival for a large data base of women with corpus cancers managed with initial surgery followed by adjuvant irradiation.

Methods And Materials: Between 1983 and 1993, 294 patients received adjuvant postoperative RT from one of three academic radiation practices.

The relationship of local and distant failure from endometrial cancer: defining a clinical paradigm.

Purpose: Recently, statistical methods have been developed to rigorously assess the relationship between local and distant failures. Such methodology has successfully been applied to a variety of tumors including those arising in the prostate, breast, and cervix. To date, no published data are available to generate a hypothesis to characterize the relationship between local and distant failure for endometrial cancer.

Pulsed low dose rate brachytherapy for pelvic malignancies.

Purpose: The pulsed low dose rate remote afterloading unit was designed to combine the radiation safety and isodose optimization advantages of high dose rate technology with the radiobiologic advantages of continuous low dose rate brachytherapy. This is the first report of a prospective clinical trial evaluating the relative incidence of acute toxicity and local control in patients with pelvic malignancies who underwent interstitial or intracavitary brachytherapy with the pulsed low dose rate remote afterloader.

Methods And Materials: From 5/11/92-6/21/95, 65 patients underwent 77 brachytherapy procedures as part of their treatment regimen for pelvic malignancies.

Three dimensional comparison of blocked arcs vs. four and six field conformal treatment of the prostate.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare five different techniques for treatment the prostate without seminal vesicles. Dose volume histograms and a time survey are the tools that were used for this analysis.

Methods And Materials: For this study we compared 3D techniques using four and six field conformal treatments, to open and blocked 8 x 8 cm2 120 degrees bilateral arcs.