Publications by authors named "Sarah Frasca"

Aim: To explore breast cancer patient's perspective on future genetic testing for prediction of toxicity after breast radiotherapy (RT).

Materials And Methods: The study involved patient enrolled in the Italian branch of the REQUITE project conducted at the National Cancer Institute in Milan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted within one month from the end of radiotherapy treatment by two radiation oncologists and a radiotherapy technician previously trained by a clinical psychologist with experience in the oncology field.

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A standardized multidisciplinary step-by-step approach to improve the compliance of young (or difficult) children having to undergo radiotherapy was described and applied. The procedure is called SIESTA, which stands for show-imagination-evaluation-support-treatment-anesthesia. Preliminary assessments suggest that the SIESTA approach was effective: the rate of young patients (≤6 years) requiring anesthesia decreased from 27% (14/52 cases) in 2011-2012 (before the procedure was adopted) to 13% (6/46) in 2018.

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Purpose: To examine interobserver variability between the radiation oncologist (RTO) and the radiation therapist (RTT) in delineating the tumor bed (TB) in early breast cancer (BC).

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients who received a radiotherapy boost to the TB. In a first group, the clinical target volume (CTV) for the boost was the surgical bed, defined by using surgical clips.

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Purpose: To validate and apply a method for the quantification of breathing-induced prostate motion (BIPM) for patients treated with radiotherapy and implanted with electromagnetic transponders for prostate localization and tracking.

Methods: For the analysis of electromagnetic transponder signal, dedicated software was developed and validated with a programmable breathing simulator phantom. The software was then applied to 1,132 radiotherapy fractions of 30 patients treated in supine position, and to a further 61 fractions of 2 patients treated in prone position.

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