The effect of treatment on survival in patients with advanced laryngeal carcinoma.

Objectives/hypothesis: Over the last 2 decades, survival from laryngeal cancer has decreased. We sought to identify factors associated with decreased survival in laryngeal cancer.

Methods: Patients diagnosed with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma from 1985 to 2002 were retrospectively reviewed.

The effect of occult nodal metastases on survival and regional control in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Objectives: To determine factors associated with disease-free survival (DFS) and regional control in clinically node-negative head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) patients with occult metastasis.

Study Design: Non-randomized retrospective analysis.

Materials And Methods: Patients who underwent elective neck dissection (END) from 1985 to 2002 were analyzed.

Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgical treatment of idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia: long-term outcome and complications.

Object: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) with the Gamma Knife (GK) is a rapidly emerging surgical modality in the management of medically refractory idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (TN). The current study examines the long-term outcome in patients with drug-resistant idiopathic TN who underwent GK surgery at the authors' institution.

Methods: One hundred and six consecutive patients (38 men and 68 women) with proven medically refractory idiopathic TN were included in this retrospective study.

Radiotherapy for recurrent choroidal neovascularisation complicating age related macular degeneration.

Aims: To report the safety and visual outcome data of external beam irradiation for recurrent choroidal neovascularisation complicating age related macular degeneration.

Methods: Eighteen consecutive eyes received external beam irradiation with seven fractions of 2 Gy (total dose 14 Gy). The next 16 consecutive eyes received external beam irradiation with five fractions of 3 Gy (total dose 15 Gy).

External beam irradiation of subfoveal choroidal neovascularization complicating age-related macular degeneration: one-year results of a prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial.

Objectives: To determine the effects of low-dose external beam irradiation compared with observation on the visual function of eyes with subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) complicating age-related macular degeneration (ARMD).

Design: Prospective, double-masked, randomized clinical trial. Patients randomized to the radiation group received external beam irradiation at a dose of 14 Gy in 7 fractions of 2 Gy.

Sham radiation in clinical trials assessing radiotherapy for exudative age-related macular degeneration.

Background: To evaluate the effectiveness of sham radiation treatments in masking patients to their randomization group in the Radiation of Age-Related Macular Degeneration (ROARMD) Study.

Methods: Patients with choroidal neovascularization complicating age-related macular degeneration were randomized to a treatment (RAD) group that received external beam irradiation (seven treatment sessions) or to a control (SHAM) group that received sham radiation (one sham treatment session). During a telephone survey, 62 of 73 randomized patients responded to the following questions: Do you think you received radiation? Why do you feel that way? Did the vision in your study eye worsen after enrollment?

Results: Eighty-one percent of the RAD group and 59% of the SHAM group thought that they had received radiation.

A new approach to film dosimetry for high energy photon beams: lateral scatter filtering.

A method of film dosimetry for high energy photon beams is proposed which reduces the required film calibration exposures to a set of films obtained for a small radiation field size and shallow depth (6 cm x 6 cm at 5 cm depth). It involves modification of a compression type polystyrene film phantom to include thin lead foils parallel to the vertical film plane at approximately 1 cm from both sides of the film emulsion. The foils act as high atomic number filters which remove low energy Compton scatter photons that otherwise would cause the film sensitivity to change with field size and depth.

Calcified aldosterone-producing adrenocortical adenoma.

We report the first case of benign aldosteronoma of an ordinary size with calcifications. We review the clinical, clinical imaging, histopathological, and laboratory features of aldosterone-producing adrenal adenoma versus carcinoma. We conclude that no single feature is diagnostic, and the full range of data must be considered.

Ga-67 used to localize the tumor bed for radiation therapy after lumpectomy.

The authors present a new method to locate the tumor bed after lumpectomy. The method relies on accumulation of Ga-67 at the surgical site. This technique was useful in identifying the tumor bed in six candidates for breast conserving surgery and radiation therapy.

The effects of radiotherapy on the nasolacrimal system as evaluated by dacryoscintigraphy.

By utilizing 61 lacrimal scans, 26 patients who had received radiotherapy for inner canthus and lid lesions were evaluated. Results indicate that the membranous lacrimal passages are relatively immune to radiation therapy. Although dacryoscintigraphy did not delineate the anatomical features quite as well as contrast dacryocystography, it yielded very useful information about flow mechanisms and tear transit times.