Eliminating tattoos for short course palliative radiation therapy: Set-up error, satisfaction and cost.

PURPOSE: Palliative patients are living longer thanks to advancements in systemic therapies and radiotherapy technologies. Prior to image guided radiotherapy, permanent ink tattoos were used to ensure set up accuracy. Permanent marks can cause psychological damage, physical pain and can reduce a patient's quality of life. In recent years, image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) has become standard practice and may eliminate the need for permanent tattoos in this patient population. METHODS: Twenty-five patients were consecutively chosen from the Palliative Radiation Oncology Program (PROP). Each received 5 fractions of radiotherapy commencing within 72 hours of CT simulation. In place of permanent tattoos, patients were marked with permanent marker and an adherent transparent film dressing (Tegaderm TM ) was placed over the mark. Patients were educated on maintaining the marks and dressing. Daily cone beam CT (CBCT) isocentre mismatch values were compared with 25 patients who received tattoos for radiotherapy to similar body regions. Radiation therapist concerns, cost, variations in isocentre shift values and additional imaging requirements were obtained. RESULTS: Isocentre shift values were similar (p<0.05) for Tegaderm TM vs. tattoo patients in the anterior-posterior (AP) and right-left (RL) directions. The mean shift value in the superior-inferior (SI) direction was larger for Tegaderm TM than for tattoos (p=0.01), however the magnitude was only 2 mm, which is clinically insignificant as these shifts were prior to IGRT guided correction. No patient required a repeat CBCT or a resimulation. The cost of the Tegaderm TM dressing was substantially less than the tattoo group. Radiation Therapists' satifaction with Tegaderm TM was overall high, however some expressed concerns with their durability and longevity. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the use of Tegaderm TM dressing did not result in increased set-up time, mismatch error or additional imaging procedures (CBCT or CTsimulation) and moreover cost substantially less than permanent ink tattoos.

Radiotherapy as primary treatment modality.

The proper management of prostate cancer is dependent on appropriate risk categorization, based on pretreatment prostate-specific antigen (PSA), clinical stage and Gleason score (GS). The use of radiotherapy in low-risk (T1-T2a, PSA < 10 ng/ml and GS 20 ng/ml or GS >or=6 8), radiation with hormones has become the standard treatment. The issues that remain focus on determining the optimal duration of hormones, assessing the use of locoregional dose escalation and determining the possible benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.

Intra-prostatic fiducial markers and concurrent androgen deprivation.

AIMS: To document the case of a man with adenocarcinoma of the prostate treated with external beam radiotherapy and concurrent androgen deprivation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The man, who received 79.8 Gy in 42 fractions of radiotherapy over 8.5 weeks using three intra-prostatic gold fiducial markers for on-line set-up correction, started an anti-androgen 2.5 weeks before radiotherapy, on the day of his planning computed tomography, and a gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist on his first day of radiotherapy. RESULTS: In the sixth week of radiotherapy, the distance between the fiducial markers had diminished: superior to posterior-mid (from 19 to 11 mm), posterior-mid to inferior (from 19 to 15 mm), and superior to inferior (from 31 to 22 mm), so the patient was rescanned. Between the two planning computed tomographies, the prostate volume had decreased from 44.3 to 28.3 cm3 (-36%). Had the planned radiotherapy been delivered to the anatomy of the rescan, the dose to the rectal wall would have exceeded the planned dose-volume histogram constraints. However, with the patient set up to the fiducial markers, the dose-volume histogram constraints for the rectal wall and bladder wall were met throughout the course of radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Involution of the prostate owing to concurrent androgen deprivation may cause in-migration of implanted fiducial markers and excessive dose to the rectal wall. With concurrent androgen deprivation, daily on-line set-up correction to fiducial markers can aid in safe dose escalation.

Radiation therapy for high-risk prostate cancer--a review.

The term high-risk prostate cancer has been coined to encompass a group of patients with a poor prognosis (clinical stage T3/T4, or T1/T2 with PSA > 20 ng/ml or GS > 8). It is estimated that 20% of patients in Canada present with high-risk disease, which translates into approximately 4000 new cases each year. The optimal management approach is unclear but the standard of care in North America for this group of patients is radiation therapy (RT) with prolonged adjuvant hormonal therapy. Current clinical trials are evaluating the role of local therapy, the value of RT dose escalation, the potential benefit of regional lymph node irradiation, the appropriate duration of adjuvant hormonal therapy, as well as the possible impact of adjunctive chemotherapy. The high-risk group of patients contains a wide spectrum of disease, ranging from patients with aggressive localized disease to those with widespread occult distant metastases. The current challenge facing clinicians is appropriate treatment selection for individual patients. Information from novel biomarkers and improved imaging, as well as more effective local and adjunctive systemic therapies is necessary to improve outcomes for men with this aggressive disease.