Zeszyty Naukowe WCO, Letters in Oncology Science最新文献

In all countries of the world, an increase in expenditure on health care is recorded. Cancer has become the main health and social problem whose effective solution requires the development of a comprehensive cancer control program. The Law on the National Programme for Combating Cancer is an example of the comprehensive approach in Poland. Treatment of cancer in Poland is based on a network of public full-profiling dozen cancer centers and oncology units located at university hospitals and local government. An example of a systemic approach at the regional level is “Wielkopolski program rozwoju radioterapii i onkologii” adopted by the provincial government.

Oncology health services in Poland is financed through the National Health Fund. In recent years, there has been scarcity of resources, due to which hospitals do not receive payment for all the provisions made. Research and cooperation with medical schools play a key role in improving treatment outcomes. Element of the system, requiring modifications, are legal restrictions on the structure of cancer centers that prevent greater share of the research and academic activities.

During the ASTRO 56 conference, which was held in San Francisco in 2014, majority of the scientific sessions on prostate cancer were devoted to the combined treatment (radiation and hormone therapy). Modern radiotherapy in the last decade contributed significantly to improved treatment results of prostate cancer. However, especially in the group of more advanced prostate cancer, we can expect further improvement in treatment results. This combined therapy should improve treatment results because of the reduction in the dose delivered to the rectum and the bladder, the most important organs at risk for radiotherapy of prostate cancer.Zapatero and coworkers from Spain presented the results of randomized phase III clinical trial (DART 01/05). In the study, they compared the results of treatment of high risk and intermediate risk of progression in prostate cancer patients with radiotherapy combined with hormonal therapy. Into the study were included 364 patients with prostate cancer who were randomized between 2005 and 2010 to the arm where the hormone therapy was used only for 4 months before the start of radiation therapy (neoadjuvant) and to the second arm where the hormone was continued for 24 months after the complition of radiotherapy. Results suggested that the biggest benefit from long-term use of hormone therapy was observed in the group of patients at high risk of progression (cT3 or PSA> 20 ng/mL or Gleason> 7) in prostate cancer.

The second very important scientific report presented at the plenary session during the conference ASTRO 2014 was related to the phase III randomized trial RTOG 0126, which assessed the results treatment in patients with intermediate risk of progression when using high dose (79.2 Gy) or standard dose of radiation (70.2 Gy). Authors of the study did not show a significant gain in overall survival or specific survival for prostate cancer from the use of higher dose in the group of intermediate risk prostate cancer. Dose escalation resulted in statistical improvement in biochemical relapse-free survival.

Cancer of the vulva is undoubtedly a serious social problem. It, more and more often, affects young women and is associated with the spread of infection with cancer-causing HPV types. It is recommended that treatment of vulvar cancer dealt with an interdisciplinary team consisting of a gynecologist oncologist, radiotherapist oncologist, pathologist, radiologist, and psychologist. The current, modern treatment strategy is based on saving procedures. Patients with very advanced disease are often treated only by surgery. Adjuvant radiotherapy is reserved for cases with close or positive margins or with metastatic inguinal lymph nodes to ensure adequate local control and longer overall survival.

Treatment of locally advanced vulvar cancer is more complex and represents a considerable challenge. It needs a combination treatment: surgery, radiotherapy and chemoradiation. Treatment through ionizing radiation plays an important role in the radical treatment of inoperable cases either before or after surgery as a treatment for cases of operations.

At the end of the treatment it is extremely important to have proper quality rehabilitation, and often counseling to harmoniously return to active life.

Total body irradiation aims at preparing the patient for a bone marrow transplant. Various schemes of fractionation doses have been developed. Each scheme is adjusted according to the diagnosis and technical capabilities of given entity. The main difficulty is small size of the irradiation field which limits the patient's positioning. It is possible to obtain the field dimension 50 × 200 cm thanks to significant averting the patient from the radiation source. Another important factor is to obtain regular distribution of dose and simultaneously its reduction in critical organs such as the lungs. When it comes to the lateral fields, the organic class plate is commonly used. This plate allows radiating more superficial layers of the body. During patient positioning in the position AP/PA, the best solution is to reduce the thickness of the field. The process of total body irradiation (TBI) should be comfortable for the patient. His/her position should be fully reproducible.

The aim of the study is to present the whole body irradiation techniques, potential complications, side effects and patient positioning during the treatment.

Efficient stem cell differentiation is considered to be the future of regenerative medicine. Pursuing the most productive method of directed differentiation has been the subject of numerous studies, resulting in the development of many effective protocols. However, the necessity for further improvement in differentiation efficiency remains. This review contains a description of molecular processes underlying the response of stem cells to ionizing radiation, indicating its potential application in differentiation procedures. In the first part, the radiation-induced damage response in various types of stem cells is described. Second, the role of the p53 protein in embryonic and adult stem cells is highlighted. Last, the hypothesis on the mitochondrial involvement in stem cell development including its response to ionizing radiation is presented. In summary, subjecting cells to the appropriate dosage of ionizing radiation may become a useful method for enhancing directed differentiation in certain stem cell types.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas are one of the worst prognosis cancers with high mortality of patients. The main methods of treatment are surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. The improvement of currently applied therapeutic methods is seen in the use of molecular features of tumour marker that describes the behavior of cells after treatment. miRNAs are supposed to be a good diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers. They are small, non-coding RNAs which are involved in regulatory function in the cell. It has been revealed that the biogenesis and function of miRNAs are disturbed in tumour cells which results in the acquisition of specific phenotypic characteristics by tumour cells. The tumour examination in the context of miRNAs expression may allow to describe potential tumour ability to its growth, progression, radio – and chemosensitivity. Creation of the miRNA panel for the personalization of treatment is still at the research stage. In this work, we collected data concerning two miRNAs: let-7d and miR-18a. We have characterized them for potential use as miRbiomarkers.

The aim of this study was to review the scientific reports describing new technology and methods of treatment planning used in teleradiotherapy. The analysis was based on selected reports presented during ASTRO 56^th Annual Meeting.

The aim of this paper is to underline the most important aspects of advanced lung cancer therapy. The described trends and problems were presented during ASTRO 56 Conference in San Francisco.