Five Fraction External Beam Partial Breast Irradiation: A User's Guide.

Objective: Mature follow up from multiple randomized trials have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of external beam partial breast irradiation (PBI) for appropriately selected patients with early stage breast cancer. Despite this evidence, external beam PBI remains underutilized. In this user guide we outline patient selection, workflow, and address possible challenges to aid in implementation of evidence-based external beam PBI.

A multi-institutional prediction model to estimate the risk of recurrence and mortality after mastectomy for T1-2N1 breast cancer.

Background: Post-mastectomy radiation therapy (PMRT) in women with pathologic stage T1-2N1M0 breast cancer is controversial.

Methods: Data from five North American institutions including women undergoing mastectomy without neoadjuvant therapy with pT1-2N1M0 breast cancer treated from 2006 to 2015 were pooled for analysis. Competing-risks regression was performed to identify factors associated with locoregional recurrence (LRR), distant metastasis (DM), overall recurrence (OR), and breast cancer mortality (BCM).

Reducing time to treatment and patient costs with breast cancer: the impact of patient visits.

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of processes aimed at reducing time to treatment initiation (TTI) on minimizing the days spent to complete pretreatment visits and the associated costs for patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer.

Methods: System-wide initiatives were implemented in 2014 to minimize TTI, by incorporating multiple strategies (eg, creation of teams, patient liaisons, process mapping) and enhanced communication to increase coordinated visits. Average number of days spent to complete visits, TTI, and associated patient costs including driving expenses, parking, food, childcare, and lost wages were calculated and compared between the years 2015 and 2018.

Outcomes with Partial Breast Irradiation vs. Whole Breast Irradiation: a Meta-Analysis.

Background: Several randomized trials have been performed comparing partial breast irradiation (PBI) and whole breast irradiation (WBI) though controversy remains, including regarding differences by PBI technique. We performed a meta-analysis to compare results between WBI versus PBI and between PBI techniques.

Methods: A systematic review was performed to identify modern randomized studies listed in MEDLINE from 2005 to 2020.

Use of a Radiation Tumor Bed Boost After Breast-Conserving Surgery and Whole-Breast Irradiation: Time Trends and Correlates.

Purpose: We sought to evaluate time trends and correlates of the use of a radiation tumor bed boost (TBB) after breast-conserving surgery and either conventional or hypofractionated whole-breast irradiation (CWBI or HWBI) for patients with early stage breast cancer.

Methods And Materials: The National Cancer Database was queried for patients diagnosed between 2012 and 2016. We evaluated the utilization of TBB before and after publication of the Society of Surgical Oncology-American Society for Radiation Oncology margin guidelines in relation to sociodemographic variables, treatment facility, tumor characteristics, and whole-breast fractionation.

Salvage Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Isolated Local Recurrence After Primary Surgical Resection of Non-small-cell Lung Cancer.

Introduction: We sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) as salvage treatment for local recurrence after prior surgical resection for non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Materials And Methods: We surveyed our prospective lung SBRT registry for patients who received salvage SBRT (sSBRT) for local recurrence after previous resection of a primary NSCLC. Following sSBRT, local control, distant metastases, overall survival, and treatment-related toxicity were evaluated.

The power of one: Evaluating the impact of a single multi-disciplinary treatment visit on time to treatment.

Breast cancer treatment often requires multi-disciplinary evaluation, which can require multiple visits, delaying time to treatment initiation (TTI). The present analysis evaluated the impact of system-wide initiatives to reduce TTI by evaluating TTI for patients completing treatment evaluation in a single visit compared with those having multiple visits. The results demonstrated that patients who completed multi-disciplinary evaluation in a single visit had a reduced median TTI (27 vs 32 days, P = .

Correlation between MRI phenotypes and a genomic classifier of prostate cancer: preliminary findings.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the correlation between MRI phenotypes of prostate cancer as defined by PI-RADS v2 and the Decipher Genomic Classifier (used to estimate the risk of early metastases).

Methods: This single-center, retrospective study included 72 nonconsecutive men with prostate cancer who underwent MRI before radical prostatectomy performed between April 2014 and August 2017 and whose MRI registered lesions were microdissected from radical prostatectomy specimens and then profiled using Decipher (89 lesions; 23 MRI invisible [PI-RADS v2 scores ≤ 2] and 66 MRI visible [PI-RADS v2 scores ≥ 3]). Linear regression analysis was used to assess clinicopathologic and MRI predictors of Decipher results; correlation coefficients (r) were used to quantify these associations.

Contemporary Management of 1-4 Brain Metastases.

Brain metastases remain the most common neurologic complication of cancer. With improvement in surveillance and systemic therapy, patients with limited CNS disease are living longer after diagnosis, thus influencing the importance of optimal radiation treatment in order to maximize local control and minimize morbidity. In patients with a limited number of brain metastases, stereotactic radiosurgery is more recently seen as an appropriate sole modality for management with excellent local control.