Cancer News Around the Web
July 30, 2019
Brachytherapy: An overview for clinicians
Brachytherapy is a specific form of radiotherapy consisting of the precise placement of radioactive sources directly into or next to the tumor. This technique is indicated for patients affected by various types of cancers...
February 28, 2019
Current state of interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy) education in Italy: results of the INTERACTS survey
Purpose: Rapid evolution and improvement of technology in radiation oncology and the complexity of each area of radiotherapy (RT) practice determined the need for an adequate and flexible practical training system. In the field of interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy – BT), a decline in BT utilization was detected in the 1990’s, essentially due to technological improvement of external beam RT...
October 31, 2018
Interstitial brachytherapy in soft tissue sarcoma: a 5 years institutional experience with Cobalt 60- based high-dose-rate brachytherapy system
Purpose: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are comparatively rare heterogeneous group of tumors with different distinct histopathological subtypes. It accounts for 21% of all pediatric non-hematological malignancies, and less than 1% of all adult solid neoplasm [1]. Due to rarity of the incidence and heterogeneous pathological varieties, STS have aggressive biological behavior and high potential for local recurrence after surgery...
October 20, 2018
Changes in insurance coverage for cancer patients receiving brachytherapy before and after enactment of the Affordable Care Act
Purpose: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act called for expansion of Medicaid in 2014. As some states elected to expand Medicaid and others did not, the goal of this study was to determine the effect of Medicaid expansion on the insurance status at cancer diagnosis of brachytherapy patients...
May 30, 2018
Radiotherapy utilization in developing countries: An IAEA study
Background: The planning of national radiotherapy (RT) services requires a thorough knowledge of the country's cancer epidemiology profile, the radiotherapy utilization (RTU) rates and a future projection of these data. Previous studies have established RTU rates in high-income countries...
March 30, 2018
Radiation Therapy Research: A Global Analysis 2001-2015
Radiation therapy is a core modality of cancer treatment; however, concerns have been expressed regarding its underutilization and its lack of prioritization as a research domain relative to other cancer treatment modalities, despite its rapid technical evolution...
February 28, 2018
A comparative assessment of inhomogeneity and finite patient dimension effects in 60Co and 192Ir high-dose-rate brachytherapy
Purpose: To perform a comparative study of heterogeneities and finite patient dimension effects in 60Co and 192Ir high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy...
January 18, 2018
Quality of training in radiation oncology in Germany: where do we stand?
Purpose: To evaluate the current situation of young radiation oncologists in Germany with regard to the contents and quality of training and level of knowledge, as well as their working conditions and professional satisfaction...
July 28, 2017
Brachytherapy patient safety events in an academic radiation medicine program
Purpose: To describe the incidence and type of brachytherapy patient safety events over 10 years in an academic brachytherapy program...
April 28, 2017
Use of ultrasound in image-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy: enumerations and arguments
Inherently, brachytherapy is the most conformal radiotherapeutic technique. As an aid to brachytherapy, ultrasonography (USG) serves as a portable, inexpensive, and simple to use method allowing for accurate, reproducible, and adaptive treatments...
January 06, 2017
US cancer death rate drops 25% since 1991
The cancer death rate in the United States has dropped 25 per cent from a peak in 1991, mainly due to a steady decline in smoking and advances in early detection and treatment of tumors, new research released Thursday shows...
December 26, 2016
CT-Guided 125I Seed Interstitial Brachytherapy as a Salvage Treatment for Recurrent Spinal Metastases after External Beam Radiotherapy
Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and clinical efficacy of CT-guided 125I seed interstitial brachytherapy in patients with recurrent spinal metastases after external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). Between August 2003 and September 2015, 26 spinal metastatic lesions (24 patients) were reirradiated by this salvage therapy modality...
September 28, 2016
Roughly half of radiotherapy candidates in developing countries lack access: ASTRO
The topic was the roadblocks preventing access to radiation therapy treatment in developing countries, and the message was simple: shipping capital equipment to these regions is not enough...
June 27, 2016
Commissioning and Quality Control of the New Saginova HDR Treatment System; First Year Experience from the United Kingdom and Germany
Purpose: It is estimated that worldwide, less than one-quarter of centres undertake their own comprehensive local commissioning tests at installation of new HDR Brachytherapy equipment [1]. Commissioning and routine quality control (QC) of HDR brachytherapy treatment equipment is essential to avoid errors and assure quality...
June 15, 2016
The American College of Radiology and the American Brachytherapy Society practice parameter for the performance of low-dose-rate brachytherapy
Abstract: Brachytherapy is the use of radionuclides to treat malignancies or benign conditions by means of a radiation source placed close to or into the tumor or treatment site. This practice parameter refers only to the use of radionuclide brachytherapy. Brachytherapy alone or combined with external beam therapy plays an important role in the management and treatment of patients with cancer...
June 01, 2016
Guidelines by the AAPM and GEC-ESTRO on the use of innovative brachytherapy devices and applications: Report of Task Group 167
Although a multicenter, Phase III, prospective, randomized trial is the gold standard for evidence-based medicine, it is rarely used in the evaluation of innovative devices because of many practical and ethical reasons. It is usually sufficient to compare the dose distributions and dose rates for determining the equivalence of the innovative treatment modality to an existing one...
May 04, 2016
Proposal to improve commissioning of HDR brachytherapy with results from the first 2 SagiNova® units
Purpose: Commissioning of HDR brachytherapy treatment equipment is essential to avoid errors and assure quality. However, it is estimated that worldwide, less than onequarter of centres undertake robust local commissioning tests at installation [1], important checks may be omitted [2], or systematic errors may remain [3]...
March 03, 2016
Effect of socioeconomic position on survival after childhood cancer in Denmark
Background: One fifth of all deaths among children in Europe are accounted for by cancer. If this is to be reduced there is a need for studies on not only biology and treatment approaches but also on how social factors influence cure rates...
January 11, 2016
As number of cancer survivors grows, so does rate of second malignancies
There are approximately 14.5 million cancer survivors in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. That number is expected to climb to nearly 19 million by 2024, the society estimates. Although advances in early detection and treatment have dramatically increased the likelihood that Americans will survive their initial cancer diagnosis...
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December 15, 2015
New cancer treatment machine coming to PRMC - WMDT47 News Report
SALISBURY, Md. - Imagine treating cancer with a radiation device smaller than your fingernail all while not damaging your other organs inside your body. It's all possible with a machine called SagiNova. SagiNova is a high dose rate brachytherapy machine that is used to treat different cancers with radiation...
December 15, 2015
Peninsula Regional Medical Center Installs Nation’s First SagiNova® High Dose Rate Afterloader System for Improved Cancer Treatment Options
Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury has become the first location in the United States to install Eckert & Ziegler BEBIG, Inc.’s new SagiNova® High Dose Rate afterloader system...
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November 24, 2015
New ASTRO template helps radiation oncologists guide cancer survivors through ongoing care
A new template published by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) standardizes and streamlines the creation of patient-focused plans for long-term cancer survivor care following radiation therapy (RT). As the number of cancer patients and survivors in the U. S. continues to grow - the American Cancer Society...
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October 23, 2015
UK launches largest trial to assess whether aspirin can fight cancer
The world's largest clinical trial to see whether taking a daily dose of aspirin can stop cancer from recurring has been launched in the UK. The Add-Aspirin phase III trial is funded by Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research...
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December 31, 2013
New 125I brachytherapy source IsoSeed I25.S17plus: Monte Carlo dosimetry simulation and comparison to sources of similar design
Purpose: To determine the relative dose rate distribution around the new 125I brachytherapy source IsoSeed I25.S17plus and report results in a form suitable for clinical use. Results for the new source are also compared to corresponding results for other commercially available 125I sources of similar design...
September 26, 2013
EGSnrc Monte Carlo-aided dosimetric studies of the new BEBIG 60Co HDR brachytherapy source
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to obtain the dosimetric parameters of the new BEBIG 60Co brachytherapy source following by TG-43U1 recommendation with appropriate electron cutoff energy (0.521 MeV)...
March 31, 2012
Treatment planning study of the 3D dosimetric differences between Co-60 and Ir-192 sources in high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy for cervix cancer
Purpose: To evaluate whether Co-60 is equivalent to Ir-192 for HDR cervical brachytherapy, through 3D-DVH dose comparisons in standard and optimised plans. Previous studies have only considered 2D dosimetry, point dose comparisons or identical loading. Typical treatment times and economics are considered...
December 31, 2011
Comparison of 60Co and 192Ir sources in HDR brachytherapy
This paper compares the isotopes 60Co and 192Ir as radiation sources for high-dose-rate (HDR) afterloading brachytherapy. The smaller size of 192Ir sources made it the preferred radionuclide for temporary brachytherapy treatments. Recently also 60Co sources have been made available with identical geometrical dimensions...
June 30, 2011
A comprehensive study on HDR brachytherapy treatments of cervical cancers: using the first Co-60 BEBIG Multisource Unit in Bangladesh
Purpose: The report presents an extraordinary synthesis of customer acceptance procedures (CAP), quality assurance tests (QA) in the treatment of cervical cancer patients, using the first Co-60 Multisource Unit® in Bangladesh. The QA and commissioning required measurements and emergency tests verifying the functional limits of parameters...
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GEC-ESTRO Handbook of Brachytherapy:
ABS Brachytherapy Guidelines and Consensus Statements:
