[Therapy-associated late effects after irradiation of malignant diseases in childhood and adolescence. Feasibility analyses of a prospective multicenter register study].

Background And Purpose: Radiogenic late effects in children and adolescents have been evaluated retrospectively in most analyses, with small patient numbers. The German Group of Pediatric Radiation Oncology (APRO) has generated a concept for a prospective evaluation of radiation-associated late effects in childhood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a nationwide central database for the documentation of radiation parameters and side effects of all children treated within therapy protocols of the German Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology (GPOH).

Ovarian function following pelvic irradiation in prepubertal and pubertal girls and young adult women.

Purpose: To analyze the effect of pelvic radiotherapy on ovarian function in prepubertal and pubertal girls and young adult women.

Patients And Methods: In a retrospective monoinstitutional analysis, patients < 30 years of age at diagnosis were included who had been irradiated between 1979 and 1998. The main tumor types were Hodgkin's disease (38%), Ewing's sarcoma (20%) and nephroblastoma (11%).

Results and follow-up of locally advanced cancer of the exocrine pancreas treated with radiochemotherapy.

Unlabelled: In locally advanced carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas combined radiochemotherapy has been established as a standard treatment.

Materials And Methods: Two different treatment schemes have been consecutively used. Between 1/1994 and 12/2001, a total of 110 patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the pancreas were treated with hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy to a total dose of 44.

Radiotherapy of benign diseases-scleredema adultorum Buschke.

Background: Scleredema adultorum Buschke is a rare disorder characterized by thickening of the dermis of the neck, head and upper trunk. Its etiology is unknown, but there may be a preceding history of infection and there is a known association with diabetes mellitus. Women are more frequently affected.

Changed adhesion molecule profile of Ewing tumor cell lines and xenografts under the influence of ionizing radiation.

Background: Adhesion molecules are involved in cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions and may be informative to characterize intercellular mechanisms of invasion and metastasis. This study was performed to characterize radiation-induced changes in the adhesion molecule profile of Ewing tumor subpopulations on a single cell level.

Materials And Methods: In the present study, two Ewing tumors were characterized in vitro 4, 24 and 72 hours after radiation with 5 Gy and in vivo in a xenograft model 4, 6 and 15 days after radiation with 30 Gy, together with non-irradiated controls, by five parameter flow cytometry.

[Legal questions in radio-oncology. Demands on patient information and documentation of the therapy with examples of current legal cases concerning specialization in radiotherapy/radio-oncology].

Background: In recent years, also due to the media, the medical information a physician gives to his patients, the methods of medical treatment and their consequences have increasingly come to the attention of the general public. As a result, to avoid claims for compensation because of faulty treatment or even to evade prosecution, the demands on medical information given before or during treatment are getting greater and greater. Generally, claims for compensation are not based on the accusation of wrong treatment, because this accusation is difficult to prove.

Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) in primary locally advanced and recurrent carcinoma of the rectum at a "non-dedicated" facility.

Background: Primary locally advanced and recurrent colorectal cancer still present a significant clinical challenge. Local failure rates are high in both situations. Promising results have been reported by combined radiochemotherapy, extensive surgery and intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT).

[Time factor and repopulation during fractionated radiotherapy. Comparison between two xenografted human squamous cell carcinoma].

Background: A series of experiments were performed to determine the local tumour control of two human squamous cell carcinoma lines in nude mice. An accelerated-fractionated radiation therapy regime is compared to a conventional-fractionated therapy regime.

Material And Methods: KB is a well established human nasopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma line (ATCC CCL 17).

Simulator verification of the accuracy of patient repositioning after virtual simulation. Is physical simulation still needed?

Purpose: To evaluate the frequency and amount of displacements after repositioning a patient on the physical simulator following virtual simulation.

Material And Methods: After laser marking at the CT scanner and virtual simulation, patients were repositioned on the simulator. The isocenter obtained from the calculated table movements was checked by fluoroscopically measuring the distances to standardized anatomic landmarks and comparing them to the treatment plan.

Radiation-induced changes of telomerase activity in a human Ewing xenograft tumor.

Aim: The effect of ionizing irradiation on telomerase activity and further associated biological factors was evaluated in a human Ewing tumor xenograft model on nude mice.

Material And Methods: The human Ewing tumor cell line STA-ET-1 was established in a nude mouse model. Initially, the dose-response relationship for the tumor model was established.

Microscopic residual disease is a risk factor in the primary treatment of breast cancer.

Objectives: In the primary treatment of breast cancer, postoperative radiotherapy is performed in high-risk patients after mastectomy and in patients who received breast conserving surgery. In a retrospective analysis, our mono-institutional results of postoperative irradiation have been evaluated.

Patients And Methods: Between 1992 and 1996, 500 patients have been irradiated after surgery for primary breast cancer.

Systemic mast cell disease (SMCD) and bone pain. A case treated with radiotherapy.

Background: Systemic mast cell disease (SMCD) is a rare disease characterized by a multitopic proliferation of cytologically and/or functionally abnormal tissue mast cells. SMCD preferentially involves the skin, spleen, liver, lymph nodes and the bone marrow. The cause of SMCD is unknown.

A long-term follow-up study after retro-orbital irradiation for Graves' ophthalmopathy.

Purpose: The aim of this retrospective analysis was to find out whether low-dose radiation, which is used in the treatment of Graves' ophthalmopathy, could cause radiation-induced cancer, which would in turn adversely affect the survival of the irradiated population and cause an increase in the cancer-specific death rate.

Methods And Materials: From 1963 to 1978, 250 patients received bilateral orbital irradiation for a progressive Graves' ophthalmopathy. Median age was 49 years.