Low-Dose Computed Tomography & Lung Cancer Screening

Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, and could have devastating effects to one’s health if not caught early enough. In order to combat this, the implementation of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screenings can be used to help detect the cancer early. Questionnaires are used in order to determine if people are high-risk for developing lung cancer and qualify for this scan. Physicians have been reported to believe in these screenings and feel they help improve survival rates and early diagnosis of lung cancer. Although there are many positives with LDCT, there are also some problems. The continued radiation dose is of concern along with how the radiation can also influence future developments of radiation induced lung cancer. Another problem with LDCT lung cancer screenings is the false positive rate on diagnosis of lung nodules, which has been high in some of the studies conducted on this topic. Although LDCT lung cancer screenings have had these problems, the future looks promising with the advancement of technology and more studies done on the topic.https://digitalcommons.misericordia.edu/medimg_seniorposters/1017/thumbnail.jp

Early Detection and Multidisciplinary Approach to Oral Cancer Patients

“Oral cancer” is a term usually describing oral cavity and oropharyngeal malign tumors. The most histologic type of carcinoma is squamous cell carcinoma, seen in oral and oropharyngeal region with the incidence of 90%. Prevention or early diagnosis of premalignant and oral cancer requires increased public awareness and educating practitioners to be skillful in identifying oropharyngeal region pathology. To prevent oral cancers, the etiological factors should be known, and measures must be taken according to those factors. Premalignant lesions are leukoplakia, lichen planus in oral and cutaneous form, erythroplakia, stomatitis nicotina, and submucous fibrosis. Premalignant lesions should be treated, if possible, or followed up on carefully. To date, there are many clinical, histopathological, radiological, and optical techniques to diagnose or capture precancerous and oral cancer lesions early. The routine management of oral cancers is firstly surgical resection with or without postoperative adjuncts and other therapies such as the use of postoperative chemoradiation and radiation. Successful treatment of oral cancer patients is a complex issue that requires a multidisciplinary approach, including oral and maxillofacial surgeons, oral and maxillofacial radiologists, ENT specialists, medical and radiological oncologists, prosthodontists, dentists, speech therapists, supportive care experts, and also pathologists or, if possible, oral and maxillofacial pathologists

Mihran Krikor Kassabian (1870–1910). Textbook author & X-ray martyr

The life of the American radiologist and electrotherapist Mihran Kassabian (1870–1910) is reviewed and provides a useful insight into the early work with X-rays in the first decade of the 20th century. Much material is drawn from Kassabian’s textbook. Commentary is given on his radiation injuries which were eventually to prove fatal when he was only 40 years of age. A bibliography of his publications shows how wide a spectrum was studied by Kassabian. The two quotations below were chosen by Kassabian to be placed before the Preface of his book and clearly show that his interests were not limited to radiology but also encompassed literature

Mihran Krikor Kassabian (1870–1910). Textbook author & X-ray martyr

The life of the American radiologist and electrotherapist Mihran Kassabian (1870-1910) is reviewed and provides a useful insight into the early work with X-rays in the first decade of the 20th century. Much material is drawn from Kassabian’s textbook. Commentary is given on his radiation injuries which were eventually to prove fatal when he was only 40 years of age. A bibliography of his publications shows how wide a spectrum was studied by Kassabian. The two quotations below were chosen by Kassabian to be placed before the Preface of his book and clearly show that his interests were not limited to radiology but also encompassed literature.

Clinical factors affecting the determination of radiotherapy-induced skin toxicity in breast cancer

Purpose:Radiotherapy is essential for the treatment of breast cancer (BC). However, adverse effects may occur in healthy tissue, during treatment and even after several months. Although it is known that this clinical radiosensitivity is multifactorial, the factors involved are unknown yet. In this study, we evaluated the effect of these factors on the development of radiodermatitis in patients undergoing radiotherapy.Materials and MethodsDemographic and lifestyle data collected during face-to-face interviews of 122 BC patients and data from clinical records were investigated. Most patients underwent conventional three-dimensional radiotherapy treatment. A total dose of 50 Gy was administered (2 Gy/day), followed by a boost in a tumor bed with a total dose of 18 Gy (2 Gy/day). Radiotoxicity was evaluated weekly using the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group classification system (range, 0 to 4, according to the severity).ResultsIn the present study, 75.4% of patients presented acute skin toxic effects with different degrees of severity. In 25% of cases, these effects manifested at the end of the fourth week at a cumulative dose of 40 Gy. The association of grade ≥2 acute skin reactions with body mass index (BMI) and breast size and between grade 3?4 and age was positive compared with controls. However, the role of the other factors could not be confirmed.Fil: Cordoba, Elisa Eugenia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria; ArgentinaFil: Lacunza, Ezequiel. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Médicas. Centro de Investigaciones Inmunológicas Básicas y Aplicadas; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Güerci, Alba Mabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico CONICET- La Plata. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria "Ing. Fernando Noel Dulout". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias. Instituto de Genética Veterinaria; Argentin

Wybrane wydarzenia w historii medycyny, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem zagadnień związanych z rakiem. Część 6. Od Davida von Hansemanna (1858–1920) do Sidneya Russa (1879–1963)

This chronology is a selection of important events in the history of medicine which are directly or indirectly related to neoplastic disease. The reason underlying its compilation is that relatively few chronologies concerning oncology have previously been published and those that do exist do not always quote references or provide the dates of birth and death of the physicians, surgeons and scientists mentioned. It is hoped that this selected chronology will be of help to those writing in depth about the history of medicine and in particular about cancer.Niniejsze zestawienie chronologiczne stanowi wybór znaczących wydarzeń w historii medycyny bezpośrednio lub pośrednio związanych z chorobą nowotworową. Przyczynkiem do powstania tego opracowania był fakt, że ukazało się dotychczas stosunkowo niewiele zestawień chronologicznych dotyczących historii onkologii, a spośród tych opublikowanych wiele nie ma przywołanych źródeł i nie przytacza lat życia lekarzy, chirurgów i badaczy. Autor ma zatem nadzieję, że poniższy, uporządkowany w czasie i opatrzony spisem piśmiennictwa wybór wydarzeń i postaci będzie szczególnie pomocny dla wszystkich, którzy bardziej szczegółowo piszą o historii medycyny, a o historii onkologii w szczególności

Is quality of colorectal cancer care good enough? Core measures development and its application for comparing hospitals in Taiwan

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although performance measurement for assessing care quality is an emerging area, a system for measuring the quality of cancer care at the hospital level has not been well developed. The purpose of this study was to develop organization-based core measures for colorectal cancer patient care and apply these measures to compare hospital performance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The development of core measures for colorectal cancer has undergone three stages including a modified Delphi method. The study sample originated from 2004 data in the Taiwan Cancer Database, a national cancer data registry. Eighteen hospitals and 5585 newly diagnosed colorectal cancer patients were enrolled in this study. We used indicator-based and case-based approaches to examine adherences simultaneously.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The final core measure set included seventeen indicators (1 pre-treatment, 11 treatment-related and 5 monitoring-related). There were data available for ten indicators. Indicator-based adherence possesses more meaningful application than case-based adherence for hospital comparisons. Mean adherence was 85.8% (79.8% to 91%) for indicator-based and 82.8% (77.6% to 88.9%) for case-based approaches. Hospitals performed well (>90%) for five out of eleven indicators. Still, the performance across hospitals varied for many indicators. The best and poorest system performance was reflected in indicators T5-negative surgical margin (99.3%, 97.2% - 100.0%) and T7-lymph nodes harvest more than twelve(62.7%, 27.6% - 92.2%), both of which related to surgical specimens.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this nationwide study, quality of colorectal cancer care still shows room for improvement. These preliminary results indicate that core measures for cancer can be developed systematically and applied for internal quality improvement.</p

Organizational and physician factors associated with patient enrollment in cancer clinical trials

Our purpose was to identify physicians’ individual characteristics, attitudes, and organizational contextual factors associated with higher enrollment of patients in cancer clinical trials among physician participants in the National Cancer Institute’s Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP). We hypothesized that physicians’ individual characteristics, such as age, medical specialty, tenure, CCOP organizational factors (i.e., policies and procedures to encourage enrollment), and attitudes towards participating in CCOP would directly determine enrollment. We also hypothesized that physicians’ characteristics and CCOP organizational factors would influence physicians’ attitudes towards participating in CCOP, which in turn would predict enrollment

Physical and Biological Characteristics of Particle Therapy for Oncologists

Particle therapy is a promising and evolving modality of radiotherapy that can be used to treat tumors that are radioresistant to conventional photon beam radiotherapy. It has unique biological and physical advantages compared with conventional radiotherapy. The characteristic feature of particle therapy is the "Bragg peak," a steep and localized peak of dose, that enables precise delivery of the radiation dose to the tumor while effectively sparing normal organs. Especially, the charged particles (e.g., proton, helium, carbon) cause a high rate of energy loss along the track, thereby leading to high biological effectiveness, which makes particle therapy attractive. Using this property, the particle beam induces more severe DNA double-strand breaks than the photon beam, which is less influenced by the oxygen level. This review describes the general biological and physical aspects of particle therapy for oncologists, including non-radiation oncologists and beginners in the field.ope