Weight gain in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer patients during treatment with split-course concurrent chemoradiotherapy is associated with superior survival.

Background: Preoperative concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is an accepted treatment for potentially resectable, locally advanced, non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We reviewed a decade of single institution experience with preoperative split-course CRT followed by surgical resection to evaluate survival and identify factors that may be helpful in predicting outcome.

Methods And Materials: All patients treated with preoperative split-course CRT and resection at Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) between January 1999 and December 2008 were retrospectively analyzed.

Intraoperative high-dose-rate brachytherapy--a novel technique in the surgical management of axillary recurrence.

Treating recurrent disease in the axilla is a challenging and complex clinical problem. Several reports in the literature suggest better outcomes with the combination of both surgery and radiation therapy than either modality alone. However, the available options for re-treatment are limited by the extent of disease at relapse, and the prior therapy that the patient has already received.

Function and organ preservation in adult cancers of the head and neck.

Treatment for primary head and neck cancer has evolved from the use of radical approaches to therapies preserving important functions. Essential to this concept is the maintenance of therapeutic efficacy. The advances of organ-sparing surgery, improved radiation techniques and fractionation, and the addition of chemotherapy and targeted systemic agents, have added to the number of patients who undergo organ-preservation therapy.

Long term disease-free survival resulting from combined modality management of patients presenting with oligometastatic, non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC).

We report outcomes on 23 patients with oligometastastic (1 or 2 sites) NSCLC treated with aggressive local, regional, and systemic treatment. The results suggest that this is a favorable subset of patients who may benefit from such an approach, with a 22% rate of long-term survival. This treatment strategy is a departure from the usual practice of palliative-only therapy for all NSCLC patients presenting with metastatic disease.

A dosimetric comparison of three-dimensional conformal, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, and MammoSite partial-breast irradiation.

Purpose: Limited information is available comparing target volume and normal tissue dosimetry with the different techniques of partial breast irradiation (PBI). We present results of a dosimetric comparison of single catheter, balloon-based brachytherapy using the MammoSite catheter (BRT), 3D conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT), and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT).

Methods And Materials: Fifteen patients were treated using the BRT device.