Changing face and different countenances of prostate cancer: racial and geographic differences in prostate-specific antigen (PSA), stage, and grade trends in the PSA era.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine changes in pretreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA), stage, and grade over the past decade as a function of race and geographic region. A multiinstitutional database representing 6,790 patients (1,417 African-American, 5,373 white) diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer between 1988 and 1997 was constructed. PSA, stage, and grade data were tabulated by calendar year and region, and time trend analyses based on race and region were performed.

Method for reducing scatter radiation dose to the contralateral breast during tangential breast irradiation therapy.

Purpose: To reduce scatter dose to the contralateral breast during tangential breast irradiation therapy.

Materials And Methods: The authors used a 4-mm-thick commercially available vinyl-coated flexible lead shield that contains a compound of vinyl resin and lead powder of 1-mm-equivalent lead density. Contralateral scatter dose was measured at 5 cm outside the geometric field edge and along the field axis, with and without use of block trays and different wedges.

Monitoring the radiation dose to a multiprogrammable pacemaker during radical radiation therapy: a case report.

Multiprogrammable pacemakers, using complimentary metaloxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry, may fail during radiation therapy. We report about a patient who received 6,400 cGy for unresectable carcinoma of the left lung. In supine treatment position, arms raised above the head, the pacemaker was outside the treated area by a margin of at least 1 cm, shielded by cerrobend blocking mounted on a tray.