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Sandro Porceddu is a head and neck radiation oncologist at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital and a Professor with the University of Queensland. [1] He was president of the Clinical Oncologic Society of Australia (COSA) [2] and chair of the Trials Scientific Committee of the Trans Tasman Radiation Oncology Group (TROG). [3]
Porceddu was awarded a doctorate of medicine for his research into improving the integration of radiotherapy in the management of head and neck cancer and received the American Head and Neck Society/ANZ Head and Neck Cancer Society Christopher O'Brien Traveling Scholarship. He is chair of a phase 3 clinical trial group to assess radiation therapy alone versus in combination with carboplatin chemotherapy for the post-operative treatment of head and neck cancers. [4]
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle accelerator. Radiation therapy may be curative in a number of types of cancer if they are localized to one area of the body, and have not spread to other parts. It may also be used as part of adjuvant therapy, to prevent tumor recurrence after surgery to remove a primary malignant tumor. Radiation therapy is synergistic with chemotherapy, and has been used before, during, and after chemotherapy in susceptible cancers. The subspecialty of oncology concerned with radiotherapy is called radiation oncology. A physician who practices in this subspecialty is a radiation oncologist.
Cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma (cSCC), or squamous-cell carcinoma of the skin, also known as squamous-cell skin cancer, is, with basal-cell carcinoma and melanoma, one of the three principal types of skin cancer. cSCC typically presents as a hard lump with a scaly top layer, but it may instead form an ulcer. Onset often occurs over a period of months. Cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma is more likely to spread to distant areas than basal cell cancer. When confined to the outermost layer of the skin, a pre-invasive, or in situ, form of cSCC is known as Bowen's disease.
Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses, or skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancer occur in the lips, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms predominantly include a sore that does not heal or a change in the voice. In those with advanced disease, there may be unusual bleeding, facial pain, numbness or swelling, and visible lumps on the outside of the neck or oral cavity. Given the location of these cancers, trouble breathing may also be present.
In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam radiotherapy is that the dose of protons is deposited over a narrow range of depth; hence in minimal entry, exit, or scattered radiation dose to healthy nearby tissues.
Merkel-cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare and aggressive skin cancer occurring in about three people per million members of the population. It is also known as cutaneous APUDoma, primary neuroendocrine carcinoma of the skin, primary small cell carcinoma of the skin, and trabecular carcinoma of the skin. Factors involved in the development of MCC include the Merkel cell polyomavirus, a weakened immune system, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Merkel-cell carcinoma usually arises on the head, neck, and extremities, as well as in the perianal region and on the eyelid. It is more common in people over sixty years old, Caucasian people, and males. MCC is less common in children.
Tirapazamine (SR-[[4233]]) is an experimental anticancer drug that is activated to a toxic radical only at very low levels of oxygen (hypoxia). Such levels are common in human solid tumors, a phenomenon known as tumor hypoxia. Thus, tirapazamine is activated to its toxic form preferentially in the hypoxic areas of solid tumors. Cells in these regions are resistant to killing by radiotherapy and most anticancer drugs. Thus the combination of tirapazamine with conventional anticancer treatments is particularly effective. As of 2006, tirapazamine is undergoing phase III testing in patients with head and neck cancer and gynecological cancer, and similar trials are being undertaken for other solid tumor types.
Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC), also known as anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, is an aggressive form of thyroid cancer characterized by uncontrolled growth of cells in the thyroid gland. This form of cancer generally carries a very poor prognosis due to its aggressive behavior and resistance to cancer treatments. The cells of anaplastic thyroid cancer are highly abnormal and usually no longer resemble the original thyroid cells and have poor differentiation.
Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) is the most common type of minor salivary gland malignancy in adults. Mucoepidermoid carcinoma can also be found in other organs, such as bronchi, lacrimal sac, and thyroid gland.
Fast neutron therapy utilizes high energy neutrons typically between 50 and 70 MeV to treat cancer. Most fast neutron therapy beams are produced by reactors, cyclotrons (d+Be) and linear accelerators. Neutron therapy is currently available in Germany, Russia, South Africa and the United States. In the United States, one treatment center is operational, in Seattle, Washington. The Seattle center uses a cyclotron which produces a proton beam impinging upon a beryllium target.
Tomotherapy is a type of radiation therapy treatment machine. In tomotherapy a thin radiation beam is modulated as it rotates around the patient, while they are moved through the bore of the machine. The name comes from the use of a strip-shaped beam, so that only one “slice” of the target is exposed at any one time by the radiation. The external appearance of the system and movement of the radiation source and patient can be considered analogous to a CT scanner, which uses lower doses of radiation for imaging. Like a conventional machine used for X-ray external beam radiotherapy, a linear accelerator generates the radiation beam, but the external appearance of the machine, the patient positioning, and treatment delivery is different. Conventional linacs do not work on a slice-by-slice basis but typically have a large area beam which can also be resized and modulated.
The Danish Head and Neck Cancer (DAHANCA) group was established in 1976 as a working group by the Danish Society for Head and Neck Oncology with the primary aim to develop national guidelines for the treatment of head and neck cancer in Denmark.
Salivary gland tumours, also known as mucous gland adenomas or neoplasms, are tumours that form in the tissues of salivary glands. The salivary glands are classified as major or minor. The major salivary glands consist of the parotid, submandibular, and sublingual glands. The minor salivary glands consist of 800 to 1000 small mucus-secreting glands located throughout the lining of the oral cavity. Patients with these types of tumours may be asymptomatic.
Human papillomavirus-positive oropharyngeal cancer, is a cancer of the throat caused by the human papillomavirus type 16 virus (HPV16). In the past, cancer of the oropharynx (throat) was associated with the use of alcohol or tobacco or both, but the majority of cases are now associated with the HPV virus, acquired by having oral contact with the genitals of a person who has a genital HPV infection. Risk factors include having a large number of sexual partners, a history of oral-genital sex or anal–oral sex, having a female partner with a history of either an abnormal Pap smear or cervical dysplasia, having chronic periodontitis, and, among men, younger age at first intercourse and a history of genital warts. HPV-positive OPC is considered a separate disease from HPV-negative oropharyngeal cancer.
The term radiogenomics is used in two contexts: either to refer to the study of genetic variation associated with response to radiation or to refer to the correlation between cancer imaging features and gene expression.
Temporal lobe necrosis is a late-stage and serious complication usually occurring in persons who have undergone radiation treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). It is rather rare and occurs in 4-30% of patients who receive radiation treatment for NPC. Many patients who experience temporal lobe necrosis are asymptomatic. This demonstrates a need for consistent imaging follow up, such as MRI and/or PET/CT, to help with the potential management of it. Those who are symptomatic usually suffer from "vague" symptoms including headaches, dizziness, intracranial pressure, personality changes, seizures, and short-term memory loss. The rarity of this disease has led to difficulty in finding optimal treatments, however, most treatments include one or some of the following: steroids, hyperbaric oxygen, surgery, and decadron.
18F-FMISO or fluoromisonidazole is a radiopharmaceutical used for PET imaging of hypoxia. It consists of a 2-nitroimidazole molecule labelled with the positron-emitter fluorine-18.
Nancy Y. Lee is a Taiwanese-born American physician and the vice-chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology in Memorial Sloan Kettering's Department of Medicine.
Limited-stage small cell lung carcinoma (LS-SCLC) is a type of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) that is confined to an area which is small enough to be encompassed within a radiation portal. This generally includes cancer to one side of the lung and those might have reached the lymph nodes on the same side of the lung. 33% patients with small cell lung cancer are diagnosed with limited-stage small cell lung carcinoma when it is first found. Common symptoms include but are not limited to persistent cough, chest pain, rust-coloured sputum, shortness of breath, fatigue, weight loss, wheezing, hoarseness and recurrent respiratory tract infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis. Nervous system problems, Cushing syndrome and SIADH can also be associated with small cell lung cancer. Unlike extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, limited-stage small cell lung carcinoma is potentially curable. Standard treatments consist of surgery, platinum-based combination chemotherapy, thoracic irradiation, and prophylactic cranial irradiation. Patient five-year survival rate has significantly increased from 1% with surgery to 26% after the application of combination chemotherapy.
Nabil F. Saba is an American oncologist. He is currently Professor and Vice-chair of Hematology and Medical Oncology, and Professor of Otolaryngology at the Winship Cancer Institute at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a specialist in the field of head and neck oncology. Saba has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. He is the inaugural Lynne and Howard Halpern Chair in Head and Neck Cancer Research.
Diffusing Alpha-emitters Radiation Therapy or DaRT is an alpha-particle-based radiation therapy for the treatment of solid tumors.
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