Xerostomia Quality of Life Scale (XeQoLS) questionnaire: validation of Italian version in head and neck cancer patients.

Aim: To translate the Xerostomia Quality-of-Life Scale (XeQoLS) into Italian language (XeQoLS-IT). Xerostomia is the most relevant acute and late toxicity in patients with head and neck cancer treated with radiotherapy (RT). Patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments are subjective report on patient perception of health status.

Late toxicity, evolving radiotherapy techniques, and quality of life in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Purpose: To analyze quality of life (QoL) and functional state (FS) by patient-reported outcome (PRO) questionnaires (FACT-G, FACT-NP, PSS-HN, XeQOLS, and EQ-5D-3L) in long-term survivors nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated with conventional radiotherapy (RT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).

Methods: 25 patients answered to five questionnaires about QoL and FS. All patients were assessed also for late toxicity.

Advantage of deep inspiration breath hold in left-sided breast cancer patients treated with 3D conformal radiotherapy.

Purpose: To compare 3D-conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) treatment plans based on free-breathing (FB) and deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) and investigated whether DIBH technique enables a decrease of cardiac left anterior descending coronary artery (LADCA) and lungs dose with respect to the FB.

Methods: Twenty-three left-sided breast cancer patients referred for breast radiotherapy were included. The planning target volume (PTV) encompassed the breast and organs at risk including heart, LADCA, lungs, and contralateral breast, which were contoured in FB and DIBH CT scans.