Piloting a language translation device for Mandarin-speaking patients presenting for radiotherapy treatment-assessing patient and radiation therapist perspectives.

Purpose: Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) cancer patients report unmet informational and emotional needs when receiving radiotherapy (RT). This feasibility study aimed to evaluate the clinical use of an instant translation device (ITD) to facilitate communication between Mandarin-speaking patients and radiation therapists (RTTs) within the Australian public RT setting. The primary aim was to assess the ability to convey information relating to daily patient care and build rapport using the device.

Validation testing of a language translation device for suitability in assisting Australian radiation therapists to communicate with Mandarin-speaking patients.

Introduction: Clear, timely communication between practitioners and patients is key in ensuring equitable access to health services and optimal care. Australia's linguistically diverse population adds complexity to healthcare provision. This paper describes a validation study to assess clinical suitability of a language translation device, intended for use with Mandarin speaking patients undergoing radiotherapy (RT).

Geographical miss of the prostate during image-guided radiotherapy with a 6-mm posterior expansion margin.

Introduction: Our department commonly uses a planning target volume (PTV) expansion of 6 mm posterior and 1 cm in all other directions when treating prostate cancer patients with image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT). This study aimed to test the adequacy of this PTV expansion by assessing geographical miss of the prostate on post-treatment cone-beam CT (CBCT) and identify those at risk of geographical miss.

Methods: Twenty-two prostate cancer patients receiving IGRT with implanted fiducial markers underwent daily pre-treatment orthogonal kV imaging followed by a post-treatment CBCT for a total of 432 fractions.

Rectal complication probability from composite volumes derived from daily cone beam computed tomography in prostate cancer radiotherapy.

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the rectal complication probabilities for various rectum volumes with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) in patients undergoing prostate cancer radiotherapy.

Materials And Methods: Thirteen patients undergoing prostate cancer radiotherapy were consecutively selected for this study. All patients were treated with IMRT to a dose of 78 Gy in 39 fractions.

Complementary therapy use in metropolitan and regional Australian radiotherapy centres; do patients report effective outcomes?

Purpose: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is increasingly used with radiotherapy treatment for cancer. This study aimed to explore patient expectations of concurrent CAM, positive/negative outcomes and any variation of use across regional and metropolitan demographics.

Methods: An ethics-approved survey was provided to radiotherapy outpatients in regional and metropolitan Victoria, Australia.

What benefit could be derived from on-line adaptive prostate radiotherapy using rectal diameter as a predictor of motion?

This study investigated a relationship between rectum diameter and prostate motion during treatment with a view to reducing planning target volume (PTV) margins for an adaptive protocol. One hundred and ninety-four cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of 10 patients were used to relate rectum diameter on CBCT to prostate intrafraction displacement. A threshold rectum diameter was used to model the impact of an adaptive PTV margin on rectum and bladder dose.

Automatic tracking of gold seed markers from CBCT image projections in lung and prostate radiotherapy.

Purpose: To construct a method and software to track gold seed implants in prostate and lung patients undergoing radiotherapy using CBCT image projections.

Methods: A mathematical model was developed in the MatLab (Mathworks, Natick, USA) environment which uses a combination of discreet cosine transforms and filtering to enhance several edge detection methods for identifying and tracking gold seed fiducial markers in images obtained from Varian (Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, USA) and Elekta (Kungstensgatan, Sweden) CBCT projections.

Results: Organ motion was captured for 16 prostate patients and 1 lung patient.

Complementary and alternative medicine use and disclosure amongst Australian radiotherapy patients.

Purpose: Information on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use in Australian radiotherapy patients is sparse. This study investigated the type and prevalence of CAM amongst an Australian regional radiotherapy patient cohort and the disclosure of information to the consultant radiation oncologist.

Methods: A single hardcopy questionnaire survey was provided to patients regarding the use of CAM and discussion with the treating medical practitioner.

A study on planning organ at risk volume for the rectum using cone beam computed tomography in the treatment of prostate cancer.

In this study, we analyzed planning organ at risk volume (PRV) for the rectum using a series of cone beam computed tomographies (CBCTs) acquired during the treatment of prostate cancer and evaluated the dosimetric effect of different PRV definitions. Overall, 21 patients with prostate cancer were treated radically with 78Gy in 39 fractions had in total 418 CBCTs, each acquired at the end of the first 5 fractions and then every alternate fraction. The PRV was generated from the Boolean sum volume of the rectum obtained from first 5 fractions (PRV-CBCT-5) and from all CBCTs (PRV-CBCT-All).