The impact of short-term psycho-oncological interventions on the psychological outcome of cancer patients of a surgical-oncology department - a randomised controlled study.

Background: Anxiety and depression are the two most frequent comorbidities of tumour patients. At present, it is unclear to which degree a patient's psychological condition can be altered during the treatment period and if psycho-oncological support positively affects a patient's psychological condition.

Methods: In a random sample analyses, 131 patients beginning inpatient treatment at a hospital specialising in surgical oncology were either classified as 'low-risk' or 'high-risk', according to the HADS.

Practice and effectiveness of outpatient psycho-oncological counseling for cancer patients.

Objective: Because of various types of psychological distress, cancer patients are encouraged to attend outpatient psycho-oncological and psychosocial counseling. The aim of this prospective study was an analysis of the impact and success of existing counseling resources.

Methods: All cancer patients who had applied at a central counseling center were given a standardized questionnaire (FBK-R23), designed to assess the type and degree of cancer patients' difficulties prior to their first counseling session.

3D ultrasound-CT registration of the liver using combined landmark-intensity information.

Purpose: An important issue in computer-assisted surgery of the liver is a fast and reliable transfer of preoperative resection plans to the intraoperative situation. One problem is to match the planning data, derived from preoperative CT or MR images, with 3D ultrasound images of the liver, acquired during surgery. As the liver deforms significantly in the intraoperative situation non-rigid registration is necessary.

Preoperative short-course radiotherapy versus combined radiochemotherapy in locally advanced rectal cancer: a multi-centre prospectively randomised study of the Berlin Cancer Society.

Background: The additional use of radiotherapy has changed the treatment of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC) dramatically. But a major achievement has been the development of total mesorectal excision (TME) as a surgical standard and the recognition that the surgeon is the predominant prognostic factor. The benefit of preoperative hypofractionated radiotherapy (SCRT; five fractions each of 5 Gy), initially established by the Swedish Rectal Cancer Trial, has been demonstrated in conjunction with TME by the Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group.