National societies' needs as assessed by the ESTRO National Societies Committee survey: A European perspective

Purpose: To determine how ESTRO can collaborate with Radiation Oncology National Societies (NS) according to its mission and values, and to define the new roadmap to strengthen the NS network role in the forthcoming years. Materials and methods: The ESTRO NS committee launched a survey addressed to all European National Societies, available online from June 5th to October 30th 2018. Questions were divided into three main sections: (1) general information about NS; (2) relevant activities (to understand the landscape of each NS context of action); (3) relevant needs (to understand how ESTRO can support the NS). Eighty-nine European NS were invited to participate. Respondents were asked to rank ESTRO milestones in order of importance, indicating the level of priority to their society. Results: A total of 58 out of 89 NS (65.2%) from 31 European countries completed the questionnaire. The majority of NS ranked “Optimal patient care to cure cancer and to reduce treatment-related toxicity” as the highest level of priority. This aligns well with the ESTRO vision 2030 “Optimal health for all together.” NS also indicated a high need for more consensus guidelines and exchange of best practices, access to high quality accredited education, implementation of the ESTRO School Core Curriculum at the national level, and defining quality indicators and standard in Radiation Oncology, improved communication and increased channelling of information. Conclusion: The results of this survey will be used to strengthen the relations between ESTRO and European NS to promote and develop initiatives to improve cancer care

The role of the radiation therapy breast boost in the 2020s

Given that most local relapses of breast cancer occur proximal to the original location of the primary, the delivery of additional radiation dose to breast tissue that contained the original primary cancer (known as a “boost”) has been a standard of care for some decades. In the context of falling relapse rates, however, it is an appropriate time to re-evaluate the role of the boost. This article reviews the evolution of the radiotherapy boost in breast cancer, discussing who to boost and how to boost in the 2020s, and arguing that, in both cases, less is more

Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI): A review of available techniques

Breast conservation therapy (BCT) is the procedure of choice for the management of the early stage breast cancer. However, its utilization has not been maximized because of logistics issues associated with the protracted treatment involved with the radiation treatment. Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) is an approach that treats only the lumpectomy bed plus a 1-2 cm margin, rather than the whole breast. Hence because of the small volume of irradiation a higher dose can be delivered in a shorter period of time. There has been growing interest for APBI and various approaches have been developed under phase I-III clinical studies; these include multicatheter interstitial brachytherapy, balloon catheter brachytherapy, conformal external beam radiation therapy and intra-operative radiation therapy (IORT). Balloon-based brachytherapy approaches include Mammosite, Axxent electronic brachytherapy and Contura, Hybrid brachytherapy devices include SAVI and ClearPath. This paper reviews the different techniques, identifying the weaknesses and strength of each approach and proposes a direction for future research and development. It is evident that APBI will play a role in the management of a selected group of early breast cancer. However, the relative role of the different techniques is yet to be clearly identified

Multicomponent nutritional supplement Oncoxin and its influence on quality of life and therapy toxicity in patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy

Treatment of cancer often requires the use of adjuvant chemotherapy (ACT). In real clinical practice, numerous patients suffer from severe toxicity and reduced quality of life (QoL). Hence, there is a need to maintain QoL and to reduce therapy toxicity to comply with recommended chemotherapy (CT) regimens. The present study focused on the effects of the multi-component nutritional supplement Oncoxin (ONCX) on QoL and CT-induced toxicity in patients undergoing ACT. A total of 133 patients aged 50-70 years with gastric cancer IIB-IIIC or non-small cell lung cancer IIB-IIIA were enrolled in the present study: 84 received ONCX, and 49 were included in the control arm and received CT only. It was identified that after 2 weeks of treatment the patients receiving ONCX exhibited clinically meaningful improvement of QoL (measured by Edmonton Symptom Assessment System Questionnaire) compared with those in the control group (odds ratio, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.00-4.29). By the end of a 3 week-period, the albumin level was higher in patients of the ONCX group compared with those in the control group (mean, 38.1; 95% CI, 37.1-39.1 g/l; vs. mean, 35.5; 95% CI, 33.9-37.0; P=0.03; respectively). Furthermore, the use of ONCX substantively reduced the hepatic toxicity of ACT. The present prospective real clinical setting study revealed positive effects of ONCX on QoL and ACT toxicity. The present study was retrospectively registered under the study registration number NCT03550482 at ClinicalTrials. gov (June 8, 2018). © 2019 Spandidos Publications. All rights reserved