Background/purpose: Setup variations and anatomical changes can severely affect the quality of head and neck intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) treatments. The impact of these changes can be alleviated by increasing the plan's robustness a priori, or by adapting the plan online. This work compares these approaches in the context of head and neck IMPT.
Materials/methods: A representative cohort of 10 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients with daily cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) was evaluated. For each patient, three IMPT plans were created: 1- a classical robust optimization (cRO) plan optimized on the planning CT, 2- an anatomical robust optimization (aRO) plan additionally including the two first daily CBCTs and 3- a plan optimized without robustness constraints, but online-adapted (OA) daily, using a constrained spot intensity re-optimization technique only.
Results: The cumulative dose following OA fulfilled the clinical objective of both the high-risk and low-risk clinical target volumes (CTV) coverage in all 10 patients, compared to 8 for aRO and 4 for cRO. aRO did not significantly increase the dose to most organs at risk compared to cRO, although the integral dose was higher. OA significantly reduced the integral dose to healthy tissues compared to both robust methods, while providing equivalent or superior target coverage.
Conclusion: Using a simple spot intensity re-optimization, daily OA can achieve superior target coverage and lower dose to organs at risk than robust optimization methods.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.radonc.2021.03.008 | DOI Listing |
BMC Public Health
January 2025
Research Institute for Healthcare Policy, Korean Medical Association, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, South Korea.
Background: In 2024, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare enforced a policy to increase the number of medical school students by 2,000 over the next 5 years, despite opposition from doctors. This study aims to predict the trend of excess or shortage of medical personnel in Korea due to the policy of increasing the number of medical school students by 2035.
Methods: Data from multiple sources, including the Ministry of Health and Welfare, National Health Insurance Corporation, and the Korean Medical Association, were used to estimate supply and demand.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol
January 2025
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Purpose: The escalating number of endoscopic skull base procedures necessitates exploring additional materials to reduce postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks in revision or staged surgeries. This study evaluates the effectiveness of reused nasoseptal flaps (NSFs) in such clinical scenarios.
Methods: A retrospective review was conducted on patients who previously underwent surgery involving NSFs and later had revision or secondary skull base surgeries via endoscopic endonasal approaches (EEAs) at a tertiary medical center.
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol
January 2025
Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, IRCCS Regina Elena National Cancer Institute, Istituti Fisioterapici Ospitalieri (IFO), Via Elio Chianesi 53, 00144, Rome, Italy.
Objectives: we evaluated the hypothesis that level of ctHPVDNA on the first postoperative day (POD-1); and at 15 days (POD-15) could be associated with the need for adjuvant therapy and the presence of recurrence.
Materials And Methods: this is a prospective observational study on biomarkers, focusing on the longitudinal monitoring of ctHPVDNA in a cohort of HPV-OPSCC patients undergoing TORS. Blood samples were collected according to the following schema: (1) pretreatment; (2) on first postoperative day (POD 1); and (3) at 15 days (POD 15).
Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol
January 2025
Motion Sickness and Human Performance Laboratory, The Israel Naval Medical Institute, IDF Medical Corps, Haifa, Israel.
Purpose: Acute acoustic trauma (AAT) is a sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) due to exposure to high intensity impulse noise. There are no acceptable treatment guidelines, although several studies showed steroids could be effective in restoring hearing levels. A recent report suggested that steroids combined with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) are a superior regiment for AAT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNPJ Digit Med
January 2025
Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Center and Laboratory for Neurofibromatosis Type 1 Research, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China.
Deep-learning models have shown promise in differentiating between benign and malignant lesions. Previous studies have primarily focused on specific anatomical regions, overlooking tumors occurring throughout the body with highly heterogeneous whole-body backgrounds. Using neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) as an example, this study developed highly accurate MRI-based deep-learning models for the early automated screening of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs) against complex whole-body background.
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