Systemic and tumor-directed therapy for oligometastatic prostate cancer: study protocol for a phase II trial for veterans with de novo oligometastatic disease.

Background: The treatment paradigm for metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC) patients is evolving. PET/CT now offers improved sensitivity and accuracy in staging. Recent randomized trial data supports escalated hormone therapy, local primary tumor therapy, and metastasis-directed therapy.

Postradiation hypothyroidism in head and neck cancers: A Department of Veterans Affairs single-institution case-control dosimetry study.

We performed a case-control study to characterize the dose-volume relationship and other variables leading to hypothyroidism after head and neck (H&N) cancer radiation therapy (RT) in a homogenous Veterans Affairs (VA) population. All records of patients receiving RT for various H&N cancers at a single VA medical center between 2007 and 2013 (n = 143) were screened for post-RT thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels (n = 77). The thyroid gland was contoured on each slice of the planning computed tomography scan when available (hypothyroid: n = 18; euthyroid > 2 years: n = 16), and dose-volume histograms based on physical dose and biologically equivalent dose (BED) were compared systematically to find the significant dose-volume thresholds that distinguish the patients who developed clinical hypothyroidism.