[Maggie's Tokyo's Human Support the Meaning of Where Now ? And Cancer Journey].

The landscape architect Maggie Jencks felt that she wanted a place to "get herself back" when her breast cancer recurred and was told that she only had a few months remaining. Mr. Charles Jencks, her husband who fulfilled her wishes, opened the first "Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre" in Edinburgh in 1996.

Multi-institutional analysis of solitary extramedullary plasmacytoma of the head and neck treated with curative radiotherapy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to elucidate the efficacy and optimal method of radiotherapy in the management of solitary extramedullary plasmacytoma occurring in the head and neck regions (EMPHN).

Methods And Materials: Sixty-seven patients (43 male and 24 female) diagnosed with EMPHN between 1983 and 2008 at 23 Japanese institutions were reviewed. The median patient age was 64 years (range, 12-83).

Limited-stage small cell lung cancer: local failure after concurrent chemoradiotherapy with use of accelerated hyperfractionation.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to update data of radiation therapy regimens for improvement in local control in patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer, a retrospective study was conducted.

Materials And Methods: Results of early concurrent chemoradiotherapy with accelerated hyperfractionation in 30 patients between 1998 and 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. The prescribed dose was 45 Gy in 30 fractions in all patients.

Usefulness of FDG-microPET for early evaluation of therapeutic effects on VX2 rabbit carcinoma.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the potential use of high-resolution FDG-microPET for predicting the primary effects of radiotherapy and/or hyperthermia on tumor-bearing rabbits.

Methods: Twenty-eight VX2 xenografts in the thighs of rabbits were divided into the following 5 treatment groups: radiotherapy at a single dose of 10, 20 or 30 Gy, hyperthermia (43 degrees Celsius, 1 hour), and the combination of radiotherapy and hyperthermia (10 Gy + 43 degrees Celsius, 1 hour). FDG-microPET images were obtained by using a microPET P4 system at pretreatment and at 24 hours and 7 days after treatment.

Non-small cell lung cancer: radiation therapy for locoregional recurrence after complete resection.

Background: We investigated patterns of failure after radical radiation therapy in relation to the radiation field in patients with postsurgical locoregional recurrence of non-small cell lung cancer.

Methods: Between 1992 and 2002, 31 patients with locoregional recurrence were treated with radiation therapy. At the time of radiation therapy, the sites of recurrence were the bronchial stump, the regional lymph nodes, the chest wall, and both the regional lymph nodes and the chest wall in 7, 20, 3, and 1 patient, respectively.

Non-small-cell lung cancer: reirradiation for loco-regional relapse previously treated with radiation therapy.

Background: We evaluated the efficacy and toxicity of reirradiation for patients with loco-regional relapse of non-small-cell lung cancer after radiation therapy.

Methods: Between 1992 and 2002, 19 patients with loco-regional relapse underwent reirradiation. The median interval between the initial irradiation and reirradiation was 16 months, with a range of 5 to 60 months.

Close radiographic landmarks for spinal cord localization in treatment of thoracic malignancy.

Background: On simulation radiographs of oblique fields, the spinal canal is estimated to be located on the deep surface of the tangential parts of the vertebral laminae within a width of the oblique diameter of the spinal canal. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of the estimated location of the spinal canal.

Materials And Methods: Beam's eye view digital simulation radiographs were produced using actual patient data from a computed tomography (CT) scanner.

Accelerated hyperfractionated irradiation with concomitant boost for stage II laryngeal cancer and locally advanced head and neck cancer.

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy and feasibility of our accelerated hyperfractionation with concomitant boost for stage II laryngeal cancer and stages III-IVb locally advanced head and neck cancer.

Patients And Methods: From January 2000 to October 2001, eight patients with AJCC 1998 stage II laryngeal cancer and 11 patients with AJCC 1998 stages III-IVb locally advanced head and neck cancer underwent accelerated hyperfractionated radiation therapy. For the stage II laryngeal cancer, radiation was delivered at a 2.

Use of FDG-microPET for detection of small nodules in a rabbit model of pulmonary metastatic cancer.

Objective: The performance of microPET using 18F-FDG was evaluated in a rabbit model of hematogenous pulmonary metastatic cancer.

Methods: A total of 15 Japanese white rabbits and VX-2 carcinoma were used in this study. In the microPET study, tumor-bearing rabbits were administered intravenously 74 MBq of 18F-FDG, and 30 min later, the emission data were acquired for 60 min.