Combined proton and photon irradiation for craniopharyngioma: long-term results of the early cohort of patients treated at Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Purpose: We report the results of the early cohort of patients treated for craniopharyngioma with combined proton-photon irradiation at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory.

Methods And Materials: Between 1981 and 1988, 15 patients with craniopharyngioma were treated in part or entirely with fractionated 160 MeV proton beam therapy. The group consisted of 5 children (median age, 15.

Ocular adnexal lymphoma: clinical behavior of distinct World Health Organization classification subtypes.

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical behavior and treatment outcome of ocular adnexal lymphomas classified by the World Health Organization system, with emphasis on marginal zone lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT).

Materials And Methods: The clinicopathologic materials from 98 consecutive patients treated for ocular adnexal lymphoma were reviewed. Fourteen patients had prior lymphoma and 84 patients had primary disease (75% Stage I, 6% Stage III, and 19% Stage IV).

Low-stage medulloblastoma: final analysis of trial comparing standard-dose with reduced-dose neuraxis irradiation.

Purpose: To evaluate prospectively the effects on survival, relapse-free survival, and patterns of relapse of reduced-dose (23.4 Gy in 13 fractions) compared with standard-dose (36 Gy in 20 fractions) neuraxis irradiation in patients 3 to 21 years of age with low-stage medulloblastoma, minimal postoperative residual disease, and no evidence of neuraxis disease.

Patients And Methods: The Pediatric Oncology Group and Children's Cancer Group randomized 126 patients to the study.

Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma of the stomach: long term outcome after local treatment.

Background: Although antibiotic therapy is emerging as effective initial treatment for patients with gastric lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT), there is a subset of patients for whom antibiotics are ineffective or inappropriate. Surgical resection can be curative, but total gastrectomy may be required for the eradication of all disease. To identify the optimal nonantibiotic therapy for early stage gastric MALT lymphoma, the authors retrospectively evaluated the Massachusetts General Hospital experience with gastric MALT lymphoma.

A blueprint for linking academic oncology and the community.

The processes by which academic medicine will train the next generation of physicians and develop new knowledge have brought to the forefront the relationship between academic medical centers and community hospitals and practitioners. Over the past thirteen years, the Harvard Medical School Joint Center for Radiation Therapy (JCRT) has developed an integrated radiation oncology program designed to serve simultaneously the needs of the community, teaching hospitals, medical schools, and faculty. The structure and function of this program are described here, as are the challenges posed by the highly competitive health care marketplace.