A Clinical Decision Aid to Support Personalized Treatment Selection for Patients with Clinical T1 Renal Masses: Results from a Multi-institutional Competing-risks Analysis.

Background: Personalized treatment for clinical T1 renal cortical masses (RCMs) should take into account competing risks related to tumor and patient characteristics.

Objective: To develop treatment-specific prediction models for cancer-specific mortality (CSM), other-cause mortality (OCM), and 90-d Clavien grade ≥3 complications across radical nephrectomy (RN), partial nephrectomy (PN), thermal ablation (TA), and active surveillance (AS).

Design, Setting, And Participants: Pretreatment clinical and radiological features were collected for consecutive adult patients treated with initial RN, PN, TA, or AS for RCMs at four high-volume referral centers (2000-2019).

Photodynamic therapy enables tumor-specific ablation in preclinical models of thyroid cancer.

The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer has increased significantly during the last several decades. Surgical resection is the primary treatment for thyroid cancer and is highly effective, resulting in 5-year survival rates greater than 98%. However, surgical resection can result in short- and long-term treatment-related morbidities.

Phantom Validation of DCE-MRI Magnitude and Phase-Based Vascular Input Function Measurements.

Accurate, patient-specific measurement of arterial input functions (AIF) may improve model-based analysis of vascular permeability. This study investigated factors affecting AIF measurements from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) magnitude (AIF) and phase (AIF) signals, and compared them against computed tomography (CT) (AIF), under controlled conditions relevant to clinical protocols using a multimodality flow phantom. The flow phantom was applied at flip angles of 20° and 30°, flow rates (3-7.

Detectability of radiation-induced changes in magnetic resonance biomarkers following stereotactic radiosurgery: A pilot study.

Our objective was to investigate direct voxel-wise relationship between dose and early MR biomarker changes both within and in the high-dose region surrounding brain metastases following stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Specifically, we examined the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) from diffusion-weighted imaging and the contrast transfer coefficient (Ktrans) and volume of extracellular extravascular space (ve) derived from dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI data. We investigated 29 brain metastases in 18 patients using 3 T MRI to collect imaging data at day 0, day 3 and day 20 following SRS.

Unified platform for multimodal voxel-based analysis to evaluate tumour perfusion and diffusion characteristics before and after radiation treatment evaluated in metastatic brain cancer.

Objective:: Early changes in tumour behaviour following stereotactic radiosurgery) are potential biomarkers of response. To-date quantitative model-based measures of dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) and diffusion-weighted (DW) MRI parameters have shown widely variable findings, which may be attributable to variability in image acquisition, post-processing and analysis. Big data analytic approaches are needed for the automation of computationally intensive modelling calculations for every voxel, independent of observer interpretation.

Common Polymorphisms in Relation to Survival among Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients: A Multicenter Study from the International Lung Cancer Consortium.

DNA topoisomerase inhibitors are commonly used for treating small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). Tyrosyl-DNA phosphodiesterase (TDP1) repairs DNA damage caused by this class of drugs and may therefore influence treatment outcome. In this study, we investigated whether common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) are associated with overall survival among SCLC patients.

Feasibility of 4D perfusion CT imaging for the assessment of liver treatment response following SBRT and sorafenib.

Objectives: To evaluate the feasibility of 4-dimensional perfusion computed tomography (CT) as an imaging biomarker for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and metastatic liver disease.

Methods And Materials: Patients underwent volumetric dynamic contrast-enhanced CT on a 320-slice scanner before and during stereotactic body radiation therapy and sorafenib, and at 1 and 3 months after treatment. Quiet free breathing was used in the CT acquisition and multiple techniques (rigid or deformable registration as well as outlier removal) were applied to account for residual liver motion.

Comparison of Voxel-Wise Tumor Perfusion Changes Measured With Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced (DCE) MRI and Volumetric DCE CT in Patients With Metastatic Brain Cancer Treated with Radiosurgery.

Dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-MRI metrics are evaluated against volumetric DCE-CT quantitative parameters as a standard for tracer-kinetic validation using a common 4-dimensional temporal dynamic analysis platform in tumor perfusion measurements following stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for brain metastases. Patients treated with SRS as part of Research Ethics Board-approved clinical trials underwent volumetric DCE-CT and DCE-MRI at baseline, then at 7 and 21 days after SRS. Temporal dynamic analysis was used to create 3-dimensional pharmacokinetic parameter maps for both modalities.

MR-guided brachytherapy for cervical cancer: Quantifying process waste and identifying opportunities for system performance improvement.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the current cervical cancer magnetic resonance-guided brachytherapy (MRgBT) process in the study institution and seek opportunities to improve efficiency and optimize quality of care.

Methods: Eight procedures were observed where the time, location, and activities performed by health care professionals were recorded using Lean method principles. Wastes, as defined within Lean methodology, were identified during the observation.

Effect of pantoprazole to enhance activity of docetaxel against human tumour xenografts by inhibiting autophagy.

Background: Autophagy allows recycling of cellular components and may facilitate cell survival after chemotherapy. Pantoprazole inhibits proton pumps and is reported to inhibit autophagy. Here we evaluate the effects of pantoprazole to modify cytotoxicity of the anticancer drug docetaxel, and underlying mechanisms.

Automated voxel-based analysis of volumetric dynamic contrast-enhanced CT data improves measurement of serial changes in tumor vascular biomarkers.

Objectives: Development of perfusion imaging as a biomarker requires more robust methodologies for quantification of tumor physiology that allow assessment of volumetric tumor heterogeneity over time. This study proposes a parametric method for automatically analyzing perfused tissue from volumetric dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) computed tomography (CT) scans and assesses whether this 4-dimensional (4D) DCE approach is more robust and accurate than conventional, region-of-interest (ROI)-based CT methods in quantifying tumor perfusion with preliminary evaluation in metastatic brain cancer.

Methods And Materials: Functional parameter reproducibility and analysis of sensitivity to imaging resolution and arterial input function were evaluated in image sets acquired from a 320-slice CT with a controlled flow phantom and patients with brain metastases, whose treatments were planned for stereotactic radiation surgery and who consented to a research ethics board-approved prospective imaging biomarker study.