Deep Learning-Based Automatic Assessment of Radiation Dermatitis in Patients With Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma.

Purpose: Radiation dermatitis (RD) is a common, unpleasant side effect of patients receiving radiation therapy. In clinical practice, the severity of RD is graded manually through visual inspection, which is labor intensive and often leads to large interrater variations. To overcome these shortcomings, this study aimed to develop an automatic RD assessment based on deep learning (DL) techniques that could efficiently assist the RD severity classification in clinical application.

Effects of Performing Applied Muscle Tension during Recovery after Phlebotomy in Young, First-Time Donors: A Pilot Study.

Vasovagal reaction (VVR) compromises donor safety and reduces the subsequent return rates. Performing applied muscle tension (AMT) during phlebotomy may reduce the incidence of VVR. However, the effectiveness of performing AMT after phlebotomy to reduce delayed VVR remains unclear.

A dosimetric comparison of the use of equally spaced beam (ESB), beam angle optimization (BAO), and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in head and neck cancers treated by intensity modulated radiotherapy.

Introduction: Previous studies have shown that the beam arrangement had significant influence on plan quality in intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). This study aimed to evaluate the dosimetric performance of beam arrangement methods by employing equally spaced beams (ESB), beam angle optimization (BAO), and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) in the planning of five types of head and neck (H&N) cancers treated by IMRT.

Methods: Five plans of different beam arrangement methods were optimized for 119 H&N cancer patients with the prescription of 66-70 Gy for high-risk planning target volume (PTV), 60 Gy for intermediate risk PTV, 54 Gy for low-risk PTV using a simultaneously integrated boost method.

The impact of positron emission tomography on primary tumour delineation and dosimetric outcome in intensity modulated radiotherapy of early T-stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Background: In intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), accurate delineation of the gross tumour volume (GTV) is important. Image registration of CT and MRI has been routinely used in treatment planning. With recent development of positron emission tomography (PET), the aims of this study were to evaluate the impact of PET on GTV delineation and dosimetric outcome in IMRT of early stage NPC patients.

A comparison between electronic portal imaging device and cone beam CT in radiotherapy verification of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

The demand of greater accuracy in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has driven the development of more advanced verification systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the differences in verification accuracy in terms of the position error detected between cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) and electronic portal imaging device (EPID) in the IMRT of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Two groups of NPC patients (n = 22 and n = 28) verified by CBCT (G1-CB), EPID (G1-EP), and EPID (G2-EP) only, respectively, were recruited.