Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology最新文献

{"title":"AI based sentiment analysis of online discussions related to cervical brachytherapy","authors":"R. Kouzy ,&nbsp;M.K. Rooney ,&nbsp;E.E. Cha ,&nbsp;S. Vinjamuri ,&nbsp;H. Wu ,&nbsp;Z.El Kouzi ,&nbsp;O. Mohamad ,&nbsp;T.T. Sims ,&nbsp;C.R. Weil ,&nbsp;N. Taku ,&nbsp;L.L. Lin ,&nbsp;A. Jhingran ,&nbsp;P. Eifel ,&nbsp;M. Joyner ,&nbsp;L.E. Colbert ,&nbsp;A.H. Klopp","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Purpose/Objective(s)</h3><div>Few studies have documented the experiences of patients receiving cervical brachytherapy. While evidence regarding quality of life issues in this population has emerged, traditional structured questionnaires often fail to capture the full range of patient perspectives. We hypothesized that analyzing unfiltered patient discussions from online forums would reveal unique insights into patient experiences, including previously unidentified emotional responses, concerns, and coping strategies. This study applied an artificial intelligence (AI) workflow to analyze cervical cancer and brachytherapy discussions from an online forum.</div></div><div><h3>Materials/Methods</h3><div>We extracted posts and comments from the subreddit r/cervicalcancer, focusing on discussions about brachytherapy between November 2020 and January 2024. We applied a processing pipeline to prepare the data for analysis. The content was analyzed using RoBERTa, a pre-trained deep learning model, to categorize sentiments as positive, negative, or neutral. We further evaluated posts using pre-defined keyword tagging to identify dominant topics within conversations based on recent literature.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The analysis encompassed 898 unique posts and comments from an initial dataset of 1075 entries. Overall sentiments were categorized as 40.4% positive, 29.9% negative, and 29.7% neutral. Discussions related to “Bowel Domain” showed the highest proportion of negative sentiments (51.2%) among all topics. “Urinary Domain” (46.8%), “Pain” (43.4%), “Fatigue” (42.4%), and “Anesthesia” (41.4%) discussions also reflected predominantly negative sentiments. In contrast, “Recovery” and “Survivorship” discussions were predominantly positive. The sentiments on “Sex” and “Mental Health” related topics displayed a more balanced distribution between positive and negative perspectives.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Our study demonstrates the value of analyzing unstructured patient narratives from online forums related to cervical brachytherapy. We identified patterns of concerns that can inform clinical practice, particularly regarding patient education about bowel and urinary side effects. These findings can improve informed consent discussions and help clinicians better address patients’ significant concerns. Further work will focus on developing automated systems to bridge the gap between clinicians’ understanding and patients’ lived experiences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"36 ","pages":"Article 100340"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145047859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Retrospective review of patient factors impacting free-breathing respiratory motion magnitude for MR-guided radiotherapy","authors":"Mairead Daly ,&nbsp;Holly Egan ,&nbsp;Ananya Choudhury ,&nbsp;Ganesh Radhakrishna ,&nbsp;Cynthia L. Eccles","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100339","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100339","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Patient factors may influence motion management strategy selection for abdominal stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR). This retrospective evaluation investigated the impact of body mass index (BMI), sex, and cirrhosis in 16 patients imaged with cine-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on a 1.5 T magnetic resonance linear accelerator (MR Linac). Male patients, those with cirrhosis, and higher BMI tended to exhibit greater motion magnitude, although this was not statistically significant, suggesting that these patients should be prioritised for motion management strategies. Further investigation in larger cohorts is warranted to confirm these trends and guide personalised motion management in abdominal radiotherapy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100339"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reply to Correspondence by Kleebayoon and Wiwanitkit","authors":"Andreea C. Ciobanu ,&nbsp;Virgil Sivoglo ,&nbsp;Diana Maican ,&nbsp;Ferenc Járai-Szabó ,&nbsp;Zoltán Bálint","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100342","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100342","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100342"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145044368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Correspondence on “Custom-made, 3D-printed bolus cap for a case of scalp metastasis: A single-institution study”","authors":"Amnuay Kleebayoon ,&nbsp;Viroj Wiwanitkit","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100341","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100341","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100341"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144931561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Standard operating procedure (SOP) for immobilisation, scanning, verification and treatment of breast cancer patients undergoing proton beam therapy","authors":"Kathryn Osborn ,&nbsp;Jaymisha Davda ,&nbsp;Rita Simoes ,&nbsp;Michael O’Connor ,&nbsp;Olivia Willis ,&nbsp;Sarah Gulliford ,&nbsp;Syed Ali Moinuddin ,&nbsp;Turmi Patel ,&nbsp;Sarah Petty ,&nbsp;Mahbubl Ahmed ,&nbsp;Thomas Richards ,&nbsp;Sairanne Wickers","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100331","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100331","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The use of proton beam therapy (PBT) for breast cancer is not currently included for standard consideration on the NHS England indication list. However, there are occasions where the use of PBT may be approved in the United Kingdom (UK), such as breast sarcoma, as part of a clinical trial or due to a photon plan meeting a threshold for significant risk of acute and late toxicities (e.g. pre-existing co-morbidities). Due to the beam characteristics, the use of PBT for breast treatment poses challenges in terms of the immobilisation, pre-treatment scanning, treatment verification and delivery. This standard operating procedure (SOP) details strategies to mitigate these that were developed as part of the implementation of breast PBT at our institution. This SOP will support existing and new PBT services when treating this patient cohort, by providing a detailed step-by-step guide to improve consistency and efficiency in the management of breast PBT.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100331"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144931559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A standardised workflow to manage the complexity of reirradiation and radiotherapy retreatments in clinical practice","authors":"Madalyne Day,&nbsp;Jonas Willmann,&nbsp;Panagiotis Balermpas,&nbsp;Riccardo Dal Bello,&nbsp;Anja Joye,&nbsp;Laura Motisi,&nbsp;Jens von der Grün,&nbsp;Crystal Sulaiman,&nbsp;Lotte Wilke,&nbsp;Nazanin Rahnama,&nbsp;Matthias Guckenberger,&nbsp;Stephanie Tanadini-Lang,&nbsp;Nicolaus Andratschke","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100336","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100336","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As cancer patients survive longer, the number of radiotherapy retreatments is steadily increasing [<span><span>1</span></span>], requiring laborious review of previous treatments, decisions regarding image registration, dose accumulation and assessment of such composite dose distributions. This work presents the development, and implementation of a standardised dedicated workflow for reirradiation (reRT) and radiotherapy retreatment based on the EORTC/ESTRO consensus on reRT.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100336"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144931560","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluation of tattoo reliability in breast cancer re-irradiation","authors":"Grace Lee ,&nbsp;Michael Velec ,&nbsp;Hedi Mohseni ,&nbsp;Tara Rosewall ,&nbsp;Yat Tsang ,&nbsp;Jennifer Croke","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100338","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100338","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Tattoos help guide field placement in breast re-irradiation. This study evaluates the stability of medial tattoos in patients with prior breast radiotherapy (RT) to determine their reliability as surface markers.</div></div><div><h3>Materials and methods</h3><div>We retrospectively identified patients who had breast/chest wall re-irradiation between January 2022 and December 2023 (RT₂) and prior breast RT (RT₁) at our institution. Planning CTs for both RT courses were registered using rigid image registration. The medial tattoo, sternum, and internal perforating branches of the internal thoracic vessels were contoured on both CT₁ and CT₂, and POIs were placed at the respective centers to assess shifts and 3D distances reported as target registration errors (TRE).</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Eighteen patients were included, average sternum 3D TRE was 0.8 mm(SD0.8), within CT voxel thickness. The average medial tattoo 3D TRE was 9.2 mm(SD5.4). Significantly greater 3D TRE was observed in patients whose arm positions varied between scans (Same: 4.7 mm vs Different: 10.9 mm, p = 0.002). The largest 3D TRE was 22.1 mm, observed in a patient who had a mastectomy before RT₂. The average vessels 3D TRE was 4.1 mm (SD2.3) and impacted by arm position (Different = 4.4 mm vs Same = 2.9 mm, p = 0.009).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>Relying solely on previous medial tattoos as indicators of the previous RT field border can be inaccurate due to arm positioning and surgical procedure changes that impact surface anatomy over time. Reproducing the patient’s original setup and arm positioning is essential to reducing registration errors in breast re-irradiation. If varying arm positions are unavoidable, internal thoracic perforator vessels may provide more robust registration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100338"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144903108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Clinical validation of using a commercial synthetic-computed tomography solution for brain MRI-only radiotherapy treatment planning","authors":"Lamyaa Aljaafari ,&nbsp;Richard Speight ,&nbsp;David L. Buckley ,&nbsp;David Bird ,&nbsp;Bashar Al-Qaisieh","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100328","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100328","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background and purpose</h3><div>MRI-only radiotherapy treatment planning (RTP) relies on synthetic-CT (sCT) images for dose calculation. This study evaluates the clinical feasibility of using a commercial sCT solution in brain RTP, MRCAT Brain, focusing on dosimetric accuracy and patient setup verification.</div></div><div><h3>Method and materials</h3><div>For dosimetric evaluation, 93 patients with brain cancer who were treated with volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) using a CT/MRI fusion workflow were included. sCT images were generated using MRCAT Brain. The sCT images were rigidly co-registered to the CT images. The clinical plan produced on the CT was recalculated on the sCT. Dosimetric accuracy was assessed by comparing dose differences in dose volume histogram (DVH) statistics for the planning target volume (PTV) and organs at risk (OARs).</div><div>For patient setup verification, 70 patients were included, and total of 572 cone beam CT (CBCT) registrations were performed with sCT and CT as reference images. The sCT matching accuracy was validated by comparing the translational and rotational differences between sCT-CBCT and CT-CBCT registrations.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The PTV mean dose difference between CT and sCT were 0.3 %, 0.4 %, and 0.2 % for D50%, D2%, and D98%, respectively. The OAR mean dose differences were less than 0.3 % for all OARs. 4 of 93 patients (4.3 %) showed gross dosimetric errors of greater than ± 2 %. 3/4 were caused by sCT error. For positioning verification, all results were between ± 1 mm and ± 1°.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study demonstrates the clinical feasibility of the MRCAT solution for brain MRI-only RTP, with dosimetric differences being clinically acceptable, along with submillimetre and sub-degree accuracy in patient setup verification.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100328"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144888785","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reirradiation: Evaluation of the occurrence and type in cancer treatment for lung – 2024","authors":"Catherine Laferlita ,&nbsp;Yiota Nicolaou ,&nbsp;Katrina Woodford ,&nbsp;Nicholas Hardcastle ,&nbsp;Susan Harden ,&nbsp;Kenton Thompson","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100337","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100337","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>With advancements in oncology practice, patients are living longer and returning for repeat courses of radiotherapy. Reirradiation (ReRT) is becoming a viable treatment option for patients. This single-institution, retrospective audit evaluates the number of patients with primary lung cancers who underwent radical retreatment to the thorax in 2024 and categorises them according to the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) consensus definition. Of the 511 patients with primary lung cancer in our institution who returned for further radiotherapy in 2024, 42 received radical retreatment to the thorax. Inconsistencies were seen in documentation across patient information platforms in relation to cumulative dose assessment and minimal documentation of radiobiological considerations such as equivalent dose in 2 Gy fraction (EQD2) were discovered. As a result of this study, recommendations were made to improve current practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100337"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144885680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Radiation therapist (RTT) perspectives on developing image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) protocols for reirradiation","authors":"Aileen Duffton ,&nbsp;Lynsey Devlin ,&nbsp;Aoife Williamson ,&nbsp;Derek Grose ,&nbsp;Eilidh Tolmie ,&nbsp;Linda MacLaren ,&nbsp;Sharon McFadden ,&nbsp;Rebecca Muirhead","doi":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100335","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.tipsro.2025.100335","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Introduction</h3><div>Prospective studies on reirradiation are limited, with most available data being retrospective, resulting in challenges in standardising protocols, interpreting outcomes, and facilitating informed patient decisions. Advanced radiotherapy planning and delivery have increased treatment possibilities for complex cases, including reirradiation. However, considerable gaps and variability in reirradiation image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and treatment delivery exist. The aim of this work was to identify ways to optimise reirradiation IGRT protocols based on RTT feedback.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>A quantitative and qualitative service improvement approach was selected, using a plan, do, check approach. RTT participants working in a single RT centre participated in focus group/nominal group technique sessions. Sessions were used to generate themes, challenges and solutions, which were then scored using Likert scale scoring criteria by all participants.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Eleven IGRT team members each with &gt; 6 years experience participated in the sessions, (4 senior specialist clinical RTT, 2 team leader specialist RTT, 2 IGRT specialist RTT, 1 consultant RTT and 2 research RTT). Eight themes, 19 challenges and 35 solutions were identified. These included communication challenges and multi-professional team (MPT) involvement, RTT role and development, clinical information and treatment intent, standards and guidelines, individualised approach, technical planning considerations, imaging and verification techniques, and anatomical site-specific considerations.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The themes identified provide valuable insights that will inform future IGRT processes and inform future research collaborations on an international level, working towards improving reirradiation treatment for patients who would benefit. There are many opportunities for the RTT within the MPT, and advanced practice (AP) can provide the framework required to develop this for the benefit of patients.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36328,"journal":{"name":"Technical Innovations and Patient Support in Radiation Oncology","volume":"35 ","pages":"Article 100335"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144893564","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}