Clinical, molecular- and cytogenetic analysis of a case of severe radio-sensitivity.

In radiotherapy the normal tissue reaction is often a limiting factor for radiation treatment. Still there is no screening method, which predicts normal tissue reaction on radiotherapy, especially in comparison to tumor tissue, and therefore allows tailoring of the radiation dose to each patient. Here, we present a case of severe radiation-related side effects.

Treatment of vascular soft tissue sarcomas with razoxane, vindesine, and radiation.

Purpose: In previous studies, razoxane and vindesine together with radiotherapy was proved to be effective in soft tissue sarcomas (STS). Because razoxane leads to a redifferentiation of pathological tumor blood vessels, it was of particular interest to study the influence of this drug combination in vascular soft tissue sarcomas.

Methods And Materials: This open multicenter Phase II study was performed by the Austrian Society of Radiooncology.

Lumpectomy plus tamoxifen or anastrozole with or without whole breast irradiation in women with favorable early breast cancer.

Purpose: In women with favorable early breast cancer treated by lumpectomy plus tamoxifen or anastrazole, it remains unclear whether whole breast radiotherapy is beneficial.

Methods And Material: Between January 1996 and June 2004, the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG) randomly assigned 869 women to receive breast radiotherapy +/- boost (n = 414) or not (n = 417) after breast-conserving surgery (ABCSG Study 8A). Favorable early breast cancer was specified as tumor size <3 cm, Grading 1 or 2, negative lymph nodes, positive estrogen and/or progesterone receptor status, and manageable by breast-conserving surgery.

The med AUSTRON/OGRO patterns of care study on radiotherapy indications in Austria.

Purpose: In Austria a national survey was conducted by Med AUSTRON/Osterreichische Gesellschaft for Radio--Onkologie, Radiobiologie und Medizinische Radiophysik (OGRO) in order to estimate the indications, patient numbers and radiotherapy treatment planning procedures and performances at all Austrian radiotherapy institutes. Results were correlated with incidence rates (Austrian cancer registry) to determine patterns of radiotherapy practice in Austria.

Material And Methods: At 12 radiotherapy departments of Austria data of all patients receiving irradiation within a 3 months (2002/2003) period were assessed.

Epidemiological aspects of hadron therapy: a prospective nationwide study of the Austrian project MedAustron and the Austrian Society of Radiooncology (OEGRO).

Background: The planned MedAustron hadron therapy facility is designed to compare proton and carbon ion beam therapy under the same technical conditions. For the calculation of the number of potential patients for hadron therapy so far, only epidemiological estimations on cancer incidence are available without inclusion of the percentage of patients routinely referred to conventional radiotherapy.

Materials And Methods: Nationwide prospective survey to collect disease and treatment related data on patients receiving conventional radiotherapy at all 12 treatment facilities.

[The photon therapy of subfoveal choroidal neovascularization in age-dependent macular degeneration. The results of a prospective study in 40 patients].

Aim: To determine the effect of external beam radiotherapy on subfoveal choroidal neovascularization in age-related macular degeneration.

Patients And Methods: Between September 1995 and July 1996, 40 patients (9 males and 31 females; mean age 74 years, range 61 to 83 years) were included in a prospective study. Eight patients had classic, well-defined neovascularisations, 32 patients had occult lesions.

Synchronous radiochemotherapy in unfavorable brain tumors of children and young adults.

The prognosis of patients with incompletely resected malignant brain tumors is almost fatal. In an attempt to improve the outcome of children and young adults with unfavorable brain tumors an intensive multimodal therapeutic strategy was developed combining simultaneous (hyper)fractionated external beam irradiation and conventional adjuvant chemotherapy after initial surgery. 17 patients aged between 2.

Intraoperative radiation therapy, endotracheal hyperthermia and IR-192-brachytherapy in patients with advanced thyroid cancer.

Tracheal stenosis due to infiltrative nonresectable thyroid cancer causes severe reduction in life quality. Palliative therapy, apart from tracheostomy is--up to now--intraluminal and/or external radiation. Good tumor control is achieved by local hyperthermia.

Results of irradiation treatment in patients with non-resectable oesophageal cancer.

Forty-eight patients with non-resectable cancer of the oesophagus and oesophagogastric junction (Group A: Stage I/II, 32; Group B: Stage III/IV, 16) underwent intraluminal Iridium-192 high dose-rate afterloading therapy (5-7 Gy/session, total dose: 5-21 Gy, mean: 12.4 Gy) and external beam irradiation (Karnofsky > or = 80% 50-60 Gy/2 Gy per day; Karnofsky 60-79%: 30 Gy/3 Gy per day). Durable satisfactory palliation (intake of at least semi-solid food) was demonstrated in 96% of patients.

Intraluminal irradiation in the treatment of malignant airway obstruction.

A group of 79 patients with non-resectable lung carcinomas (T1, 1; T2, 13; T3, 34; T4, 19; recurrence, 12) underwent endobronchial iridium-192 high-dose rate afterloading therapy (5 Gy/session total dose: 5-25 Gy, mean 11.6 Gy). In 39 cases the fair general condition and absence of metastases allowed external-beam irradiation (EBR) to be administered (50-70 Gy total dose; 2gy/day), starting 1 week after the brachytherapy session.

Follow-up and quality of survival of 67 consecutive children with CNS tumors.

We report the findings at follow-up in 67 consecutive children with central nervous system tumors treated over a 5-year-period at a single institution. The diagnoses were supratentorial astrocytoma (n = 12), cerebellar astrocytoma (n = 10), ependymoma (n = 9), medulloblastoma (n = 9), brain stem glioma (n = 6), optic pathway glioma (n = 5), and others (n = 16). The survival rates were 83% for supratentorial astrocytomas at a median of 46.

Ocular sequelae of multimodal therapy of hematologic malignancies in children.

We retrospectively analyzed the ocular findings after polychemotherapy including intrathecal methotrexate, systemic corticosteroids, and prophylactic cranial irradiation in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n = 16) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (n = 2). After a median surveillance time of 4.1 years, asymptomatic ocular abnormalities were observed in 83% of the patients: 7/18 had a decreased tear formation, 5/17 had an opacity of the vitreous body, and 13/18 had an opacity of the lens.

Evaluation of adjuvant therapy after surgery for primary carcinoma of the fallopian tube.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of postoperative therapy (chemotherapy vs. irradiation) on overall survival.

Design: A nationwide retrospective analysis.

[Breast cancer in the man: a report of 30 patients].

A retrospective review of male patients suffering from breast cancer seen over an 18-year period was carried out at the Department of Clinical Oncology of the University Hospital of Graz. Thirty evaluable cases were analysed. Eight patients had Stage I, 11 had Stage II, 8 had Stage III, and 3 had Stage IV disease.

Primary fallopian tube carcinoma--a retrospective survey of 51 cases. Austrian Cooperative Study Group for Fallopian Tube Carcinoma.

Objective: To evaluate retrospectively the importance of invasion beyond the basement membrane on overall survival in Fallopian tube carcinoma and its influence on the necessity of postoperative adjuvant therapy (stage 0 vs. stage I).

Design: In a nationwide analysis the data of 51 patients were evaluated.

Undifferentiated (embryonal) sarcoma of the liver in childhood. Successful combined-modality therapy in four patients.

Background: Undifferentiated (embryonal) sarcoma of the liver is a rare, highly malignant, mesenchymal tumor presenting predominantly in late childhood. Four girls, ages 6-13 years, who were treated with combined-modality regimens are reported.

Methods: In the first and second patients, hemihepatectomy resulted in complete removal of the tumor, and multiple-agent chemotherapy was administered postoperatively.

Iridium-192 high dose rate brachytherapy combined with external beam irradiation in non-resectable oesophageal cancer.

Forty-eight patients with non-resectable cancer of the oesophagus and oesophagogastric junction (group A: Stage I/II: n = 32; group B: Stage III/IV: n = 16) underwent intralumenal iridium-192 high dose-rate afterloading brachytherapy (5-7 Gy/session, total dose 5-21 Gy, mean 12.4 Gy) and external beam irradiation (Karnofsky > or = 80%: 50-60 Gy/2 Gy per day; Karnofsky 60%-79%: 30 Gy/3 per day). Prolonged satisfactory palliation (intake of at least semi-solid food) was demonstrated in 96% of patients.

Hyperfractionated radiotherapy and polychemotherapy in brain stem tumors in children.

Between October 1989 and January 1991 five children with brain stem tumors were treated with sequential chemo- and radiotherapy. The polychemotherapy consisted of procarbazine, ifosfamide, etoposide, methotrexate, cisplatin and cytosine arabinoside. Locally, hyperfractionated radiotherapy was delivered at a total dose of 63.

[Metallic mesh endoprosthesis and intraluminal high dose rate 192Ir brachytherapy in the palliative treatment of malignant bile duct obstruction. Initial results].

Since December 1989, 9 patients with inoperable malignant biliary tract obstruction were treated palliatively by a combined modality treatment consisting of placement of a permanent biliary endoprosthesis followed by intraluminal high dose-rate 192Ir brachytherapy. A dose of 10 Gy was delivered in a hyperfractionated schedule at the point of reference in a distance of 7.5 mm of centre of the source.

Reduction of the dose to the lens in prophylactic cranial irradiation: a comparison of three different treatment techniques and two different beam qualities.

Three treatment techniques using two beam qualities have been compared on the basis of dose to the lens in prophylactic cranial irradiation. The dose to the lens and the globe was measured with thermoluminescent crystals in an anthropomorphic phantom and calculated by a computer-assisted planning system. A comparison was made of large field and small field techniques using 60Co and 8 MV photons.

Surgical and non-surgical treatment of cancer of the oesophagus and the oesophagogastric junction: results of 200 consecutive cases.

200 consecutive, unselected patients with cancer of the oesophagus or the oesophagogastric junction (89 squamous, 110 adenocarcinoma or undifferentiated, 1 oat cell) between 1984 and 1987 were reviewed. Resection with postoperative adjuvant irradiation in the cases of squamous cell cancer, was carried out in 51 patients and non-surgical treatment [57 combined dilation and Nd-YAG-laser, 64 iridium 192 high-dose rate brachytherapy with or without 60 Gy external beam irradiation (EBR); 28 endoprostheses] was performed in the remaining 149 patients. The overall 5 year-survival rate was 9.

[Evaluation of irradiation techniques in breast carcinoma using dose-volume histograms. Comparison of the heart and lung exposure].

For irradiation of the internal mammary lymph nodes (IMN), together with irradiation of the breast the commonly used treatment techniques are of three types: 1. two tangential opposed fields, 2. three field plans with a separate "straight on" IMN-field, or 3.

[Endocrinologic function following cranial irradiation in acute lymphoblastic leukemia in childhood].

Endocrinological function was evaluated in 31 children after successful treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. All patients had received combination chemotherapy and 12-24Gy of cranial irradiation according to the German therapy protocols BFM-81, BFM-83 and BFM-86. Height, weight, bone age and pubertal development, as well as hypothalamic-pituitary function were measured.

[Treatment of primary cancer of the fallopian tube].

33 patients treated since 1970 at the Medical School of the University of Graz, were classified using the FIGO system for ovarian carcinoma, fourteen were in stage I, 8 stage II, 8 stage III and 3 stage IV. In 17 patients, surgery consisted of total abdominal or vaginal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy; 12 patients underwent additional pelvic +/- paraaortic lymph node extirpation and in 4 the tumour excision was incomplete. Treatment in 6 patients was surgery alone (2/stage I, 4 with advanced disease) (Group A).