Dose–Volume Constraints fOr oRganS At risk In Radiotherapy (CORSAIR): An “All-in-One” Multicenter–Multidisciplinary Practical Summary

BACKGROUND: The safe use of radiotherapy (RT) requires compliance with dose/volume constraints (DVCs) for organs at risk (OaRs). However, the available recommendations are sometimes conflicting and scattered across a number of different documents. Therefore, the aim of this work is to provide, in a single document, practical indications on DVCs for OaRs in external beam RT available in the literature.MATERIAL AND METHODS: A multidisciplinary team collected bibliographic information on the anatomical definition of OaRs, on the imaging methods needed for their definition, and on DVCs in general and in specific settings (curative RT of Hodgkin's lymphomas, postoperative RT of breast tumors, curative RT of pediatric cancers, stereotactic ablative RT of ventricular arrythmia). The information provided in terms of DVCs was graded based on levels of evidence.RESULTS: Over 650 papers/documents/websites were examined. The search results, together with the levels of evidence, are presented in tabular form.CONCLUSIONS: A working tool, based on collected guidelines on DVCs in different settings, is provided to help in daily clinical practice of RT departments. This could be a first step for further optimizations

Cancer distribution pattern in females at Wolaita Sodo University Hospital, 2021.

NMSC—Non Melanomatous Skin cancer, NHL- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, STS—Soft tissue sarcoma.</p

Pediatric common cancer types.

Pediatric common cancer types.</p

Cancer distribution pattern in adults in Wolaita Sodo University Hospital, 2021.

NMSC—Non Melanomatous Skin cancer, NHL- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. HNSCC—Head and Neck squamous cell cancer.</p

Commonest cancer types.

Commonest cancer types.</p

Sociodemography.

Sociodemography.</p

Cancer distribution pattern in males at Wolaita Sodo University Hospital, 2021.

NMSC—Non Melanomatous Skin cancer, NHL- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, STS—Soft tissue sarcoma. HNSCC—Head and Neck squamous cell cancer, GIST—Gastrointestinal stromal tumor.</p

Assessing the effectiveness of palliative radiotherapy for painful bone metastases in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review

: Palliative radiotherapy (RT) effectively relieves pain in patients with bone metastases (BMs). Furthermore, several clinical trials, in most cases conducted in high-income countries (HICs), proved that single-fraction RT is equally effective compared to multi-fractionated RT. However, the evidence is scarce regarding low/middle-income countries (LMICs), where the diagnosis of BMs could be later and RT techniques less advanced. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review to evaluate the efficacy of palliative RT of BMs in the LMIC setting. A literature search was performed independently by two authors on the PubMed, Cochrane and Scopus databases. Overall, 333 records were screened and after the selection process, 11 papers were included in the analysis. Complete pain response rates ranged from 11.5% to 37.1% (median: 22%) for single-fraction RT and from 0% to 35.1% (median: 19%) for multi-fractionated RT. Partial pain response rates ranged from 23.1% to 76.9% (median: 53.8%) for single fraction RT and from 23.8% to 84.6% (median: 65%) for multi-fractionated RT. Four randomized trials compared single-fraction RT with multiple-fraction RT and none of them showed significant differences in terms of pain relief. Our analysis showed that pain response rates after palliative RT recorded in LMIC are like those reported in studies performed in HIC. Even in this setting, RT in single fraction shows comparable pain response rates to multifractional RT