Aims. To evaluate whether reduced waiting time influences survival of patients treated with whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) for brainmetastases. Materials and Methods. Retrospective intention-to-treat study including 110 patients treated with primary WBRT (typically 10 fractions of 3Gy; no other treatment between diagnosis and WBRT). Uni- and multivariate tests were performed. Results. Median ...

Re-irradiation can be considered for local recurrence or new tumours adjacent to a previously irradiated site to achieve durable local control for patients with cancer who have otherwise few therapeutic options. With the use of new radiotherapy techniques, which allow for conformal treatment plans, image guidance, and short fractionation schemes, the use of re-irradiation for different sites is ...

Purpose: The aim of our study was the external validation of an extended variant of the four-tiered diagnosis-specific graded prognostic assessment (DS-GPA) that includes more information about extracranial disease burden and blood test results, and predicts survival of patients with brain metastases. The extracranial DS-GPA (EC-GPA) includes serum albumin, lactate dehydrogenase, and number of ...

Background: Recently, graded prognostic assessment (GPA) for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients with brain metastases has been developed. This includes age, performance status, number of brain metastases and presence of extracranial metastases. The aim of the present study was to validate this four-tiered prognostic score in a European cohort of patients. Methods: The retrospective validation ...

The purpose of the present retrospective study was to investigate whether a score reflecting systemic inflammatory processes [the Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS)] provides relevant information for radiation oncologists. GPS is a three‑tiered score [0: normal C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin; 1: one abnormal result; 2: increased CRP and low albumin]. Correlations between disease type and extent, ...

Objectives. The objective of this study was to document that the Sami people, constituting an ethnic minority in northern Norway, experience an equally available specialist health care service as the one offered to Norwegians in general. We aimed to use cancer and radiotherapy treatment as the instrument to clarify the situation.<p> <p>Study design. A retrospective registry-based study.<p> <p>Methods. ...

Background and Purpose: With improved life expectancy, preventing neurocognitive decline after cerebral radiotherapy is gaining more importance. Hippocampal damage has been considered the main culprit for cognitive deficits following conventional whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT). Here, we aimed to determine to which extent hippocampus-avoidance WBRT (HA-WBRT) can prevent hippocampal atrophy ...

Biologically younger, fully independent octogenarians are able to tolerate most oncological treatments. Increasing frailty results in decreasing eligibility for certain treatments, e.g., chemotherapy and surgery. Most brain metastases are not an isolated problem, but part of widespread cancer dissemination, often in combination with compromised performance status. Multidisciplinary assessment ...

Background/Aim: A validation of the recently published METSSS model (developed from a large US database) predicting survival after palliative radiotherapy was performed. METSSS includes age, sex, cancer type, localization of distant metastases, comorbidity, and radiotherapy site. Patients and Methods: Both 1- and 5-year survival was assessed in the validation cohort. Deviations between model-predicted ...