C Nieder

..Apparently, case reports describing unexpected therapeutic success gain more attention, at least in terms of citation, than others...

..If improved local control rates could be observed, overall survival might improve accordingly...

..Nevertheless, combined treatment appears feasible. The role of consolidation cetuximab after RT is uncertain. A large randomised phase III study of combined RT, chemotherapy and cetuximab has been initiated...

..The challenges associated with brain tumour treatment remain formidable, but rationally designed clinical trials are gradually leading to improved outcomes...

..Salvage chemotherapy or targeted agents should be prospectively tested against re-irradiation alone...

..While elderly patients with brain metastases from lung cancer appear to have an unfavorable prognosis, little information is available on disease presentation and treatment outcome in very young patients...

..Treatment consisted of whole-brain radiotherapy and letrozole. Twenty-one months later, the patient is in continued partial remission...

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..9, 9.8, 5.5, and 3.7 months, respectively (p<0.05). In conclusion, these results confirm the validity of the GPA index in a patient population that previously has not been assessed with this new tool...

..Whole-brain radiation therapy was not able to provide durable CNS control. Prospective studies on treatment intensification appear warranted...

..e. <2 months, who are unlikely to derive major benefit from whole brain radiotherapy. Our aim was to develop a more reliable model...

..The outcome of whole-brain radiotherapy in elderly patients with brain metastases is not well documented. As the number of such patients is expected to increase, we evaluated our results...

..This case illustrates that some patients with multi-organ melanoma manifestations may benefit from the repeated use of effective local therapeutic approaches and may experience a quite favourable prognosis...

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..These data suggest that administration of infliximab concomitant to radiotherapy causes profound alterations in the development of kidney dysfunction. Importantly, other radiation-related toxicities were similar across all groups...

..Our institution has used an aggressive policy of local retreatment, including surgery and radiotherapy, at first relapse. Long-term survival (>2 years) after such an approach was evaluated...

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..Little information is available on disease presentation and treatment outcome in very young patients with brain metastases from breast cancer. Therefore, we evaluated our results in this group...

..It was the aim of this study to compare differences in disease pattern, patient characteristics and survival in patient cohorts treated during different decades...

..The available scores for patients with brain metastases have never been tested specifically in patients with primary breast cancer. It is therefore unknown which score is most appropriate for these patients...

..Patients with T4 tumors might experience unsatisfactory symptom control and should be offered a part in prospective studies addressing these issues...

..Our data suggest that simple parameters such as use of medications vs. none, or presence of serious cardiac disease vs. none, are not sufficient, and that age-adjusted CCI scores outperform the other factors included in our analysis...

..These results support the concerns expressed previously, given that risk group assignment, which may be inaccurate in patients using concomitant medications, eventually guides choice of treatment...

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..The purpose of this study was to determine the risk factors for and incidence as well as prognostic impact of pathologic fracture (PF) and metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC) in patients with bone metastases (BM) from prostate cancer...

..Additional drugs targeting other pathways and microenvironmental features such as invasion, oxygenation and blood supply, might be included in the rational design of future clinical trials, provided initial studies support their use...

..In spite of the large number of patients and increasing financial pressure on health care budgets worldwide, limited data on resource utilization after diagnosis of brain metastases are available...

..Its performance should be evaluated in larger groups of patients and head to head comparisons of the established brain metastases scores with this new model should be made...

..The present study evaluates this approach in scores related to radiation oncology...

..To evaluate disease pattern, patient characteristics, and survival in patients treated for brain metastases from renal cell carcinoma...

..To evaluate models predicting short survival in patients with brain metastases treated with whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT)...

..No comparison to the two NSCLC-specific scores has been made either. Hence, it remains unclear which score is most appropriate for these patients...

..In conclusion, these data suggest that the utilisation of palliative radiotherapy in a health care system without financial barriers to treatment no longer varies with distance between residence and hospital...

..The corresponding number for Norway was 95 (95% CI 93-98) in 2004. New data are lacking, although new systemic treatment options might alter this number...

..Radiation-induced heart disease might be a serious complication in long-term cancer survivors...

..Early results suggest that acute toxicity is acceptable, planned surgery after such treatment is feasible, and that further evaluation of such combined modality treatment is warranted...

..To evaluate postoperative prognosis and the performance of known prognostic scores in patients treated with surgical resection for single brain metastasis...

..While survival might be largely independent from OTT, it should also be evaluated whether this parameter has any impact on quality of life and duration of palliation...

..When compared to the other agents, sunitinib has the best cost-effectiveness figure. Second-line therapy does not offer valid incremental cost-effectiveness ratios...

..The untreated lung metastases progressed very slowly during almost 3 years of observation. This case illustrates important issues around both biological behaviour and treatment approaches in metastatic renal cell cancer...

..The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence, risk factors and prognostic impact of anaemia and thrombocytopenia in patients with bone metastases (BM) from prostate cancer...

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..Possible explanations were provided, however, they disregard the potential contribution of prophylactic radiotherapy to the mamillary regions (PMRT, prescribed to avoid gynecomastia)...

..A rapid and reliable animal model would allow for screening of a large number of candidate drugs that might modify the radiation response of the spinal cord...

..e. between 1997 and 2008. In addition, other analyses of prognostic factors in groups of patients, which typically are underrepresented in large trials or databases, published in the same time period are reviewed...

..However, further work-up revealed abscesses from bronchopneumonia. Diagnostic and therapeutic aspects as well as potential pitfalls in the management of patients with brain metastases are discussed...

..To examine retrospectively the maximum dose to the large skull base/intracranial arteries in fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (FSRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), because of the potential risk of perfusion disturbances...

..To examine experimental strategies for prevention of radiation-induced late spinal cord damage...

..In virtually all large studies with multivariate analysis, their influence was higher than that of emerging factors...

..Recent data suggest that class prediction models, based on defined molecular profiles, and assessment of MGMT promoter methylation might contribute to improved patient stratification and decision making...

..If up to three brain metastases are present, surgical resection or radiosurgery are currently being considered in case of favorable prognostic factors...

..To develop a valid treatment strategy for recurrent high-grade gliomas using stereotactic hypofractionated reirradiation based on biologic imaging and temozolomide...

..Our system allows easy and fast handling and immobilization and thus reduces experimental times...

..The optimum schedule of temozolomide administration and the influence of combinations with additional antineoplastic agents remains to be studied. Early results of clinical trials addressing these issues are presented...

..Although insulin-like growth factor-1 has previously been shown to protect the kidney, such an effect could not be demonstrated for EPO. The latter agent even increased the development of nephropathy...

..Especially in highly curable diseases such as lymphoma, long-term survivors might develop late cardiac damage and radiation-induced second cancer...

..In conclusion, liver metastases of GBM can be effectively treated by chemotherapy. This case report suggests suitable substances which can be chosen according to clinical circumstances...

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..Hypofractionated SRT is safe even in elderly patients with stage I NSCLC and significantly reduced lung capacity. It leads to high local control rates and should be offered to patients not amenable for curative resection...

..Tirapazamine (TPZ) reportedly enhances the tumor cell killing effect of cisplatin up to fivefold and it is an attractive drug for combination with radiotherapy. We evaluated the toxicity of a fractionated combined treatment...

..Temporal changes in tumor biology, which might represent both a challenge and a chance with regard to adaptation of treatment, need to be addressed in greater detail...

..The authors evaluated the toxicity of TPZ in combination with cisplatin in a mouse tumor model. For this purpose, general toxicity was monitored and all inner organs were examined histologically...

..Early results suggest that acute toxicity is acceptable, planned surgery after such treatment is feasible, and that further evaluation of such combined modality treatment is warranted...

..a nearly significant negative effect of p53 overexpression on outcome of treatment with cytotoxic drugs and radiation emerges in the few studies where heterogeneity can be sufficiently reduced or accounted for...

..However, for the purpose of palliation, retreatment within the dose range used at our institution should be considered, taking the patient's expected life span and clinical symptoms into account...

..Thus, we tested whether insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) alone or in combination modulate radiation tolerance of the rat cervical spinal cord...

..This review summarizes translational research data as well as clinical strategies for response modification and prediction...

..To update a combined analysis of all published clinical data...

..The goal of this study was to analyze the value of 123I-alpha-methyl-tyrosine-single photon emission CT (IMT-SPECT) in radiotherapy planning of patients with brain gliomas after surgical resection...

..e., application of more than one fraction per day, in high-grade gliomas. This review summarizes the results of trials published between January 1997 and June 2002...

..They form the basis for further studies of growth factor administration in this particular model...

..If medical history does not match with acoustic neuroma, further diagnostics are necessary to rule out infectious disease or carcinomatous meningitis...

..Individual tailoring of such strategies based on molecular profiling is hoped to improve the outcome...

..To evaluate the role of 11C-methionine positron emission tomography (MET-PET) in target volume delineation for meningiomas and to determine the interobserver variability...

..Because of different modes of action, a follow-up study was undertaken to test the combined treatment...

..It is therefore necessary to evaluate Ptx in larger clinical trials with less baseline variation and to improve the recording of long-term results...

..The goal of this trial was to quantify the affect of MET-PET vs. with MRI in gross tumor volume definition for radiotherapy planning of high-grade gliomas...

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..Additional investigation is required to define potentially clinically useful growth factor regimens in the clinic...

..e., drugs, antibodies and antisense oligonucleotides) have now entered clinical trials, mainly for recurrent gliomas and a small number are being tested in combination with radiotherapy. Early results of such approaches are presented...

..Myoepithelioma might arise in the head and neck area, especially within the salivary glands. It is very uncommon as a primary intracranial tumor...

..To review the role of amifostine (WR-2721) in ameliorating radiation-induced central nervous system (CNS) toxicity...

..However, prospective clinical studies are lacking. Therefore, a combined analysis of all published clinical data might provide a valuable basis for future trials...