Impact of Hypoxia on Radiation-Based Therapies for Liver Cancer.

Hypoxia, a state of low oxygen level within a tissue, is often present in primary and secondary liver tumors. At the molecular level, the tumor cells' response to hypoxic stress induces proteomic and genomic changes which are largely regulated by proteins called hypoxia-induced factors (HIF). These proteins have been found to drive tumor progression and cause resistance to drug- and radiation-based therapies, ultimately contributing to a tumor's poor prognosis.

Engagement and outcomes of cancer patients referred to a tobacco cessation program at a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center.

Introduction: Tobacco cessation is a critical but challenging intervention for cancer patients. Our National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center instituted a tobacco cessation program in 2019. This manuscript reports on the first 2 years of our experience.

Patterns-of-failure guided biological target volume definition for head and neck cancer patients: FDG-PET and dosimetric analysis of dose escalation candidate subregions.

Background: To identify the radio-resistant subvolumes in pretreatment FDG-PET by mapping the spatial location of the origin of tumor recurrence after IMRT for head-and-neck squamous cell cancer to the pretreatment FDG-PET/CT.

Methods: Patients with local/regional recurrence after IMRT with available FDG-PET/CT and post-failure CT were included. For each patient, both pre-therapy PET/CT and recurrence CT were co-registered with the planning CT (pCT).