Experts presented state-of-the-art and emerging techniques to treat chest tumours and discussed common issues in the management of pneumothorax at RSNA 2022. Current ablation methods in the thorax include radiofrequency ablation (RFA), microwave ablation (MWA), cryoablation (CRYO), irreversible electroporation (IRE) and pulsed electric field.
In a new editorial paper, researchers from the Army Hospital Hamburg discuss treatment strategies for common, but highly malignant types of head and neck tumors.
Treatment times for radiotherapy could be reduced for some early breast cancer patients, according to a trial led by University of Cambridge and The Institute of Cancer Research, London.
For proton radiation therapy against cancer, there is yet no direct method for mapping the beam range during dose delivery. A new method devised by Dresden scientists could help.
Researchers from the Organoid group (Hubrecht Institute) and UMC Utrecht have developed a biobank with organoids derived from patients with head and neck cancer (HNC).
Patients with early-stage breast cancer who have an elevated risk of having tumour recurrence now have the option to take a course of radiotherapy following breast conservation surgery that is only three weeks long, half the time of conventional radiotherapy treatment.
Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is increasingly used in early-stage lung cancer. However, experts caution that ditching surgical options in favour of "SBRT-only" has serious drawbacks.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) could identify patients at increased risk of side effects from radiation treatment for breast cancer, according to researchers at the University of Leicester.
Should patients over the age of 70 with head and neck cancer receive aggressive combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy? This is a controversial issue among patients, their families and health professionals.
Dunlee unveiled its new oncology bundles onsite at ECR. The bundles combine components that have been tested and verified to work together so clinicians can offer state-of-the-art onboard Cone Beam CT (CBCT) in facilities.
A new clinical trial has shown that men diagnosed with prostate cancer can benefit from ‘radical radiotherapy’ that delivers treatment in five hospital visits instead of the typical 20.
Imaging researchers have taken a major step towards their ultimate goal of identifying cancers that are starved of oxygen so that altered treatment can be used to target them more effectively.
Interactive mobile apps have become ubiquitous in daily life. The Covid-19 pandemic has escalated the use of disease-specific monitoring apps. Mobile apps enabling cancer patients to self-manage their physical condition and symptoms can help them to evaluate toxic side effects of their treatments, offer artificial intelligence (AI)-generated recommendations to minimize them, and alert them to…
Radiology practitioners have highlighted the benefits of cone beam CT in delivering high resolution at a low dose. Delegates at ECR 2023 in Vienna heard how cone beam CT (CBCT) could replace multidetector CT (MDCT) in some areas and is already showing cost-effectiveness benefits.
ECR 2023 returns to its traditional date in March, but delegates can expect novelties with sessions touching not just cutting-edge science, but also archaeology and palaeontology, and putting trainees in the spotlight, Congress President Professor Adrian Brady told Healthcare in Europe in an exclusive interview.
Radiotherapy does not improve survival rates in older patients with early breast cancer, new research suggests.
HighlightsSupport precision in Radiotherapy with Magnetom Sola, or Vida and trendsetting applicationsScan patients consistently in the treatment position with dedicated RT positioning equipment (CIVCO, Orfit, Qfix), an MR compatible laser bridge (LAP), and a large variety of flexible coilsRely on intuitive and dedicated RT workflows with the myExam RT Assist¹ and the syngo.via RT Image…
New research will bring together scientists from across the globe to accelerate fluorescence-guided surgery for bone cancer patients. The upcoming trial is focused on the dye indocyanine green (ICG).
Philips is an active participant in the new European Federation for Cancer Images consortium (EUCAIM) – a project launched in the run-up to World Cancer Day 2023.
HighlightsRadCentre is a comprehensive process and data management solution for radiology, nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. Based on latest technologies it offers high usability with an innovative user interface (Cockpit) and most efficient reporting with integrated speech recognition.Integration of received reports (specification depends on cooperating system) Fast and efficient creation…
HighlightsDedicated head coil for high-resolution, used in combination with a radiotherapy mask MRI control before and after stereotactic radiotherapy High-resolution MR diagnostics of head and neck Transversal, sagittal, coronal and tilted images possible Removable double mirror for claustrophobic patients
Focused ultrasound (FUS) ablation is an emerging treatment for breast tumours. Its use was highlighted in an October webinar focused on emerging immunotherapy research and breast cancer.
Glioblastomas march to the beat of a different drum: researchers discovered a type of cells that act as pacemakers, driving the growth of the brain tumour and increasing its resistance.
Treating pancreatic cancer patients with chemotherapy before surgery significantly improved 1-year survival rates compared to immediate surgery, a randomised clinical trial has found.
Using fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging may give insights into possible dose reductions in ongoing radiation therapy of head and neck cancer. A promising study to explore this option was presented at the 2022 ASTRO/ASCO Multidisciplinary Head and Cancer Symposium held in Phoenix, Arizona.
An advanced radiotherapy technique can be used to safely treat prostate cancer patients in as little as one to two weeks, compared with the current standard, which takes one to two months.
Bowel cancer patients could in future benefit from a new 3D bioprinting technology which would use their own cells to replicate the complex cellular environment of solid tumours in 3D models.
Focal treatment of prostate cancer involves treating only the tumor and not the entire gland, sparing surrounding tissue and nerves. The method is being evaluated in a research study.
Many women diagnosed with breast cancer can be cured with surgery, radiotherapy and medical treatment. Swedish researchers explore whether physical exercise can support the anti-tumour effects.
The hearts of men and women are different – while this insight has been established for quite some time now, it might even surprise cardiologists just how deep these differences really run. In her presentation at this year’s ESC, Diana Bonderman, MD, gave a comprehensive roundup on sex differences in risk factors and subtypes of heart failure.
UK researchers developed and validated a deep learning algorithm that can identify and outline a non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumor on a CT scan within seconds.
A Europe-wide project aims to improve medical radiation protection for patients and staff by better understanding and evaluating the health effects of exposure to low-dose ionising radiation resulting from diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.
Medical imaging and radiotherapy treatment devices are essential lifesaving technologies. In an era when hospital information systems are increasingly being attacked by cybercriminals, just how protected and safe is this equipment?
A new way of differentiating healthy from diseased cells could pave the way for more personalised treatment for patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a common and aggressive type of brain tumour.
In an online event to mark International Women’s Day, five women at various stages of their careers in cancer care discussed the hurdles they had to overcome – often because of their gender – and their determination to succeed.
Involving cancer patients more closely in the treatment pathway can modify care and deliver better outcomes. Carefully designed questionnaires and treatment response monitoring are helping clinicians take therapies to a new level.
A different way of treating people with prostate cancer will be investigated by researchers at the University of Leeds in a new clinical trial funded by Yorkshire Cancer Research.
A team of researchers from Singapore has developed a novel magnetic therapy that serves as an effective companion therapy to chemotherapy to enhance treatment outcome for breast cancer.
Artificial intelligence (AI) could help guide the post-treatment surveillance of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and improve outcomes as a result, according to a new study.
During a webinar, health experts and clinicians highlighted the need for urgent changes to lung cancer services across Europe to create a more cohesive and equal approach to care.
A new research venture pairs cutting-edge particle accelerator science and radiation therapy.
Researchers have succeeded in using metal oxide nanoparticles as "radiosensitizers" – and in producing them on an industrial scale.
Molecular radiotherapy shows great potential in becoming a more mainstream treatment for cancer, but the field is being hampered by a limited radionuclide supply.
Scientists at University College London have developed a novel cancer therapy that uses an MRI scanner to guide a magnetic seed through the brain to heat and destroy tumours.
Pancreatic cancer is a disease of the elderly: the average age of patients is 72. In Austria, about 1,600 people are diagnosed each year. Since pancreatic cancer has no specific symptoms, it is not usually diagnosed until the tumor is locally advanced or has already metastasized. Once the tumor has metastasized, it is usually no longer treatable by surgery or radiotherapy. In addition, the drug…
A new technology that can study which therapies will work on patients with solid cancerous tumours has been developed by scientists at University College London (UCL). Researchers say the tool, which can rapidly test tumorous tissue against different treatments, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy or radiotherapy, could be used by clinicians to pinpoint the best therapy for a particular patient.
Prostate cancer specialists from the Radiotherapy Department at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals Foundation Trust have become the first in the world to use an innovative technique to help patients receiving treatment for prostate cancer. Some patients receiving radiotherapy for prostate cancer will have their treatment split into two portions. The first stage of killing the cancerous…
A solid diagnosis has always been the first step on any patient’s journey to health. However, diagnostic categories are necessarily oversimplifications. In the last decades, medical professionals and scientists have begun to uncover the true variability in patients’ physiological and biochemical make-up that is the principal cause for individual variations in the way diseases present…
The Netherlands Cancer Institute, University of Amsterdam (UvA), and Elekta will collaborate on the development of new AI strategies for the further improvement of precision radiotherapy. This concerns the personalization of treatment by improving the quality of imaging used during treatment, predicting and accounting for changes in the patient’s anatomy over time, and automatically adapting…
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers in the world, and one of the most difficult to treat. In 2020, an estimated 495,000 individuals worldwide were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and an estimated 466,000 died, according to statistics from the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer. Most patients with advanced disease die within a year of…
Cancer care and the treatment clinicians can offer patients is being increasingly enhanced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The technology has a role in diagnosis, with algorithms trained to design and deliver patient care, can match patients to clinical trials they may benefit from, and even help predict outcomes and those at greatest risk.
Over recent years interventional oncology (IO), as a subspecialty of interventional radiology, has become a standard component of many cancer therapies. The broad range of minimally invasive methods – and their results – are often comparable to those of traditional approaches, such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, e.g. with regard to hepatocellular cancer (HCC), oligometastatic…
A breast cancer therapy that requires just one shot of radiotherapy is as effective as traditional radiotherapy, and avoids potential damage to nearby organs, according to a paper by UCL experts.
An innovative hydrogel – called a double network (DN) gel – can rapidly reprogram differentiated cancer cells into cancer stem cells, researchers at Hokkaido University and the National Cancer Center Research Institute have reported in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The hydrogel can be used to help develop new cancer therapies and personalized medicines targeting cancer stem cells.
Tumor vaccines can help the body fight cancer. Mutations in the tumor genome often lead to protein changes that are typical of cancer. A vaccine can alert the patients' immune system to these mutated proteins. For the first time, physicians and cancer researchers from Heidelberg and Mannheim have now carried out a clinical trial to test a mutation-specific vaccine against malignant brain tumors.…
Lung tumors are home to immune cells that affect their growth and resistance to treatment. Looking at neutrophils, scientists led by EPFL have discovered that the key might lie in the cells’ ability to metabolize glucose, opening an entirely new target for improving radiotherapy.
Brainlab, a digital medical technology company, announced today the acquisition of Mint Medical GmbH, a Heidelberg-based company that develops image reading and reporting software for clinical routine and research. The acquisition underscores the Brainlab commitment to digital health and aims to improve the structured diagnosis, analysis and treatment of cancer and other diseases to address the…
Clinical audit within radiology departments can help promote high quality medical care and improve patient experience, as well as provide educational and teaching opportunities. Aiming to see consistent delivery across Europe, clinical audit is currently under the initiative ‘Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Radiotherapy, and Nuclear medicine including Therapies’. The latest project…
Pan-European lung cancer screening is challenged due to the range of approaches in different countries. As attitudes towards smoking and smoking cessation programmes vary, experts are attempting to establish more unified lung cancer screening. The introduction of consistent pan-European lung cancer screening will be outlined at a special session during the online ECR 2021, with presentations…
A radiotherapy technique which ‘paints’ tumours by targeting them precisely, and avoiding healthy tissue, has been devised in research led by the University of Strathclyde. Researchers used a magnetic lens to focus a Very High Electron Energy (VHEE) beam to a zone of a few millimetres. Concentrating the radiation into a small volume of high dose will enable it to be rapidly scanned across a…
Hybrid PET/CT imaging can fully play to its strengths and steer treatment towards more effective procedures for diagnosing prostate cancer. The examination of the specific antigen PSMA with hybrid PET imaging enables treatment monitoring with significantly higher diagnostic accuracy than conventional imaging and therefore, Professor Clemens Cyran believes, will soon become the standard diagnostic…
Doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge aim to drastically cut cancer waiting times by using artificial intelligence (AI) to automate lengthy radiotherapy preparations. The AI technology, known as InnerEye, is the result of an eight-year collaboration between researchers at Cambridge-based Microsoft Research, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the University of Cambridge.
Royal Philips and InSightec, a global healthcare company focused on the therapeutic power of acoustic energy, announced a collaboration to expand access to MR-guided focused ultrasound for incisionless neurosurgery. By developing compatibility between Philips’ advanced MR systems and the Exablate Neuro platform from InSightec, the two companies will support expanded access to MR-guided focused…
Imagers need special scenarios, skills and tools to examine larger patients, who present more challenges when it comes to radiological procedures. New ultrasound devices could help reduce dose exposure in these patients, who are more likely to undergo x-ray based examinations and receive a higher dose during those, experts explained in a dedicated session during ECR 2020.
To target ionised radiation as precisely as possible, imaging a tumour is vital in radiotherapy planning. ‘Today, imaging is used increasingly during the therapy itself,’ explained Professor Mark Ladd during the 51st annual meeting of the German Society for Medical Physics (DGMP).
Prostate cancer radiotherapy treatments guided by MRI are increasingly being explored to help improve patient outcomes and reduce toxicities after treatment. However, this development is being held back as the MRI approach is labour intensive and requires daily adaptive treatment planning, placing significant additional demands on clinician time and oncology services. To address this, a team of…
About 2,200 satellites are currently orbiting the Earth and soon space stations may be equipped with the latest medical imaging technology, including interventional radiology devices. In France, radiologists and astronauts are putting their heads together to make this vision materialise in a unique partnership between the French Society of Radiology (SFR) and the French Space Agency (CNES).
The evolving area of immunotherapies in lung cancer and the role of iRecist treatment assessment protocols were investigated during a virtual session organised by the British Institute of Radiology (BIR). Consultant radiologist Dr Charlie Sayer, specialist in lung cancer imaging at the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust, South of England, focused on immunotherapies, the limitations of…
In the first study of its kind in cancer, researchers have applied artificial intelligence to measure the amount of muscle in patients with brain tumours to help improve prognosis and treatment.
Dosimetry specialist PTW Freiburg GmbH signed a collaboration agreement with The Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital (NKI-AVL, Amsterdam) to jointly develop an advanced EPID-based dosimetry solution for automated patient-specific quality assurance in radiotherapy. The new software module RT EPID, which will become part of PTW’s patient QA platform Veriqa, builds on…
Breast cancers that are detected in the interval between national screening programme mammograms have a worse prognosis than those detected at the time of a screening, even if they have the same biology, according to research presented at the 12th European Breast Cancer Conference. Analysis of results from over eight years’ follow-up of the international MINDACT randomised phase III clinical…
The dosimetry specialist PTW Freiburg GmbH has entered into a collaboration with the US-based bioinformatics company Radialogica LLC to integrate their advanced SciMoCa Monte Carlo dose calculation algorithm into PTW’s patient QA platform Veriqa. The new Veriqa module RT MonteCarlo 3D, which uses the SciMoCa dose engine for calculation-based radiotherapy plan verification, has received CE mark…
Siri and Alexa are leading the way: the virtual assistants meet many daily needs. Soon, similarly programmed software and a ‘digital patient twin’, will be launched into the medical world – both IT applications based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The virtual medical assistant and digital patient twin are two key aspects of a research project ‘Models for Personalised Medicine’.…
Due to compromised immune systems cancer patients are at higher risk of contracting infections. How does cancer impact on patients who also contract Covid-19? To collect this data, four cancer registries, one in the EU, one in the UK, two in the USA, have been established. The first large, multi-institution study of the impact of Covid-19 was conducted in Wuhan, China, and presented at the…
For most women with early breast cancer, a single dose of targeted radiotherapy during surgery is just as effective as conventional radiotherapy, which requires several visits to hospital after surgery. This combination of targeted radiotherapy (restricted to the area around the tumour) given immediately after surgery is called targeted intraoperative radiotherapy. Conventional radiotherapy…
Neuroradiologist Dr Sofie Van Cauter described the challenges to brain tumour image segmentation during the European Society of Medical Imaging Informatics (EuSoMII) annual meeting in Valencia. She also outlined how, when clinically validated, AI could help tackle such problems. The WHO classification of brain tumours has come a long way since first introduced in 1979. The 2016 classification was…
The AI-Rad Companion family supports radiologists, radiation oncologists, radiotherapists and medical physicists through automated post processing of MRI, CT and X-ray datasets. It saves the clinicians' time and helps them to increase their diagnostic precision.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected virtually every aspect of healthcare provision - cancer care is no exception. In fact, during the pandemic, patients with cancer represent a high-risk group. Recent studies estimate that delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment will increase the indirect death toll of COVID-19 by several thousands in the coming years.
Death rates from prostate cancer are predicted to fall in 2020 in the EU, largely due to better diagnosis and treatment, according to new research published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology. In the latest predictions for cancer deaths in the EU for 2020, researchers led by Carlo La Vecchia (MD), Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Milan (Italy), show that since 2015…
The causes of 40 percent of all cases of certain medulloblastoma – dangerous brain tumors affecting children – are hereditary. A genetic defect that occurs in 15 percent of these children plays a key role by destabilizing the production and breakdown of proteins. The researchers suspect that protein metabolism defects could be a previously underestimated cause of other types of cancer.
Novel advanced imaging biomarkers are being developed in a series of studies at several UK centres that may lead to the earlier assessment of treatment response to glioblastoma (GBM) and a better survival rate.
Examining the safety of AI integration into clinical workflow during at the British Institute of Radiology (BIR) annual congress in London, this November, Professor Nicola Strickland focused on issues of data quantity and quality, regulation, validation and testing of algorithms. She also urged radiologists and computer scientists to work more closely together to develop safe, effective and…
Scientists have created one of the most detailed maps of breast cancer ever achieved, revealing how genetic changes shape the physical tumour landscape. An international team of scientists, brought together by a £20 million Grand Challenge award from Cancer Research UK, has developed intricate maps of breast tumour samples, with a resolution smaller than a single cell. These maps show how the…
More than half of all cancer patients undergo radiation therapy and the dose is critical. Too much and the surrounding tissue gets damaged, too little and the cancer cells survive. Subhadeep Dutta and Karthik Pushpavanam, graduate students working in the lab of Kaushal Rege, Professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, and collaborators at Banner-M.D. Anderson in Gilbert, Arizona, developed a…
A technique that enables patients suffering from heart conditions to hold their breath safely for over 5 minutes could have potential as part of a new treatment for cardiac arrhythmias, say researchers at the University of Birmingham. In a new study, published in Frontiers in Physiology, researchers initially proposed the technique as a new means for earlier diagnosis of ischaemic heart disease.…
Whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (WB-MRI) is championed as offering significant benefits, such as improving disease evaluation for prostate cancer patients. During an intense session in genito-urinary cancer at ECR 2019, three key speakers focused on the advantages over conventional imaging modalities as well as discussing new PET (Positron Emission Tomography) tracers.
An enthralling insight into the care that could be offered to cancer patients of the future was presented by cancer imaging expert Professor Regina Beets-Tan during her a keynote presentation at the recent British Institute of Radiology congress. In the session ‘Oncologic imaging: Future perspectives’, the professor outlined what a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) of the future – a team in…
Breast cancer screening is a well-designed and scientifically proven, evidence-based procedure, but has pitfalls such as under-detection and over-diagnosis. Surgery or radiotherapy may have serious consequences on health and must therefore be administered in carefully selected patients.
Digital medical technology company Brainlab announced the launch of Mixed Reality Viewer, which brings spatial computing into daily clinical practice for surgical plan review, medical student training and patient consultation. Brainlab Mixed Reality (MR) Viewer uses the head-mounted display Magic Leap One from Brainlab strategic development partner Magic Leap to add a new dimension to patient…
Interventional radiotherapy for tibial arteries has increased in recent years. Why? People are getting older and better techniques and materials now permit treatment even of very thin vessels. Professor Dierk Vorwerk, Director of the Institute for Radiology at Ingolstadt Hospital, where almost a third of all interventions in his department are performed on the lower leg, described the most…
Pancreatic cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer‑related deaths worldwide. Patients with pancreatic cancer often receive chemotherapy or radiation therapy, which are not always effective and can have toxic side effects. In a collaborative research between Osaka University and the University of Heidelberg, researchers are exploring a new method of treatment that brings powerful yet…
Researchers identified how to kill therapy-resistant cells in hypoxic tumors and in cells arising in the von Hippel-Lindau hereditary cancer. In a recent publication in PNAS, the research group identified how to kill therapy-resistant cells in hypoxic tumors and in cells arising in the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) hereditary cancer.
A new way of concentrating radiotherapy dose in tumours, while minimising damage to healthy cells, has been proposed in research led by scientists at the University of Strathclyde. The study proposes that focusing high-energy particle beams on a small spot deep inside the body could potentially enable clinicians to target cancerous tumours precisely, while reducing the dose to surrounding tissue.…
Earlier this July, 75 Medical Physics Experts gathered in Prague to attend the EFOMP and COCIR Summer School “State of the art & new trends of angiographic equipment: Image quality, Patient and Staff dosimetry”, endorsed by the European Society of Radiology (ESR). The Summer School was organised in collaboration with the Czech Association of Medical Physicists and the Department of…
Image analysis of prostate cancer is a challenging area for clinicians. The disease shows a low mutation burden compared to melanoma and stomach cancer, for example, making morpho-molecular correlation more difficult, and there is often very low inflammation. With the role of tumour infiltrating lymphocytes in prostate cancer currently unclear – and with the advent of new approaches to prostate…
Pathologists, radiologists, urologists and radiotherapy specialists sit at the core of the treatment pathway for the patient, working together as a cohesive unit. In an innovative 2019 ECR session in Vienna, the prostate unit from Ghent University Hospital in Belgium outlined how the team works to deliver the best clinical outcome for patients.
A single high dose of radiation that can be delivered directly to the tumour within a few minutes is a safe and effective technique for treating men with low risk prostate cancer, according to a study presented at the ESTRO 38 conference. Radiotherapy traditionally involves a series of lower dose treatments that take place over several days or week. The new treatment is called high dose-rate…
Women with early, low risk, hormone-driven breast cancer are less likely to have a recurrence of their disease if they have radiotherapy after surgery, as well as anti-hormone treatment, according to results from a trial that has followed 869 women for ten years. New findings from the 8 A trial of the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group (ABCSG), presented at the ESTRO 38 conference,…
Cognitive impairment associated with cancer, also known as “chemobrain”, has gained recognition as a complication of the disease and its treatment, as it can negatively affect the daily lives of cancer patients and survivors. Chemobrain can be subtle yet persistent, with some cancer patients reporting difficulties related to memory and attention even months after completing their treatment.…
Medical physicists at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden (Germany) announce the beginning of a new era in treatment planning: In a worldwide first, a new approach increases the accuracy, safety and probably also the tolerability of proton therapy.
Chordomas are rare bone tumors for which only few options of treatment exist. Scientists and doctors from the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), and Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) have discovered a particular genetic trait of chordomas in advanced stages after conducting gene analysis. Their findings, published in the journal Nature…
Despite COCIR raising the alarm as early as 2014, the age of the installed base of medical imaging equipment in Europe continues to increase. To draw attention to this worrying trend, COCIR is presenting new data on the current situation in four modalities of medical imaging, graphically demonstrating the extent of the issue. These were launched tday at the European Congress of Radiology 2019 in…
In breast cancer, one of the most common cancers in women, tumors contain a small amount of so-called cancer stem-like cells (CSCs). Being able to eliminate breast-cancer stem-like cells in a targeted way is essential for developing successful therapies — conventional treatments, such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy followed by drug intake, do not target CSCs. A better understanding of the…
A clinical-scientific team specializing in head-and-neck cancer has identified a way to manipulate metabolism to potentially curb skin fibrosis – a common side effect of radiotherapy affecting quality of life of cancer survivors. The study findings from the laboratory of principal investigator Dr. Fei-Fei Liu, Chief, Radiation Oncology, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health…
MRI offers unequalled sensitivity and specificity in breast cancer detection. Yet, it is poorly accepted preoperatively. Recently, eminent radiologist Francesco Sardanelli, professor for radiology at Milan University and Chief of Radiology at the IRCCS Policlinico San Donato in Italy, unveiled preliminary results that could further MRI acceptance among multidisciplinary teams.
Nearly two-thirds of all cancer patients in the United States will undergo radiation therapy as part of their treatment, and as many as 90 percent of those patients will experience radiation dermatitis – a rash or burn on the skin. Topical treatments commonly such as silver sulfadiazine cream contain heavy metals. Therefore, patients have historically been advised to avoid using these…
A new method predicts the course of HPV-negative head and neck cancer after radiation chemotherapy. According to a recent article in the journal ‘Clinical Cancer Research’, five microRNAs (miRNAs) can provide the decisive data.
Using a new approach called 'reinforced learning', researchers have taught an artificial intelligence (AI) to responsibly choose the right amount of chemo- and radiotherapy for glioblastoma patients. The technique, which is insprired by behavioural psychology, has given the AI the ability to master the tightrope walk between effective tumor shrinkage and the medications' severe side effects.
Using high energy ultrasound beams to destroy prostate cancer tumours may be as effective as surgery or radiotherapy, but with fewer side effects. A new study, carried out at six hospitals across the UK, tracked 625 men with prostate cancer who received a type of treatment called high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU).
Hitachi’s Fusion imaging combining MRI and Real-time Virtual Sonography (RVS) showing a cervix lesion with color Doppler Fusion imaging techniques are being trialled to help advance the diagnosis of cervical cancer and endometrial cancer.
The overall UK radiology equipment market spend for the six months to the end of March 2018 is down by around 30% compared to the same period in the previous year. This is according to latest figures from AXREM (the Association of Healthcare Technology Providers for Imaging, Radiotherapy and Care), which represents all the major medical imaging manufacturers active in the UK. Commenting on the…
Blood is the juice of life, as while circulating through the body it delivers vital substances such as oxygen and nutrients to cells and tissues. Chemotherapy, radiotherapy and blood loss in general impoverish the system. A special kind of cells in the bone marrow, called hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) is able to replenish the impoverished system by giving rise not only to red blood cells, but…
The radiographer in Switzerland faces many issues, from having the right education to positioning themselves both professionally and legally in the healthcare continuum. Before a large audience at ECR 2018, Yves Jaermann, head of the radiographers service Riviera-Chablais Hospital in Vaud Valay, reviewed the situation in his country. The profession of radiographer was born in 1896, when the first…
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers diagnosed nationally among men. The National Cancer Institute estimates 161,000 were diagnosed in 2017. While there are many treatment options for men with prostate cancer, a recent national study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association compared the effectiveness of treatments for high-risk prostate cancer. Said Daniel Krauss,…
As early detection and treatment of breast cancer improves, more and more women are surviving the disease. However, they still face challenges, which include determining the moment when it might be reasonable to state they are “cured” of the disease, and obtaining life insurance. “In the Netherlands, most applications for life insurance are accepted, but not for cancer survivors. A lot of…
The development of new procedures to monitor cancer treatments is gathering momentum. One such innovation is liquid biopsy. This new lab technique allows non-invasive identification, characterisation and monitoring of circulating tumour DNA. Thus, liquid biopsy can potentially revolutionise oncological diagnostics – and put a spoke in the wheel of radiology. High time to act, says Professor Dr…
Some time in the distant future artificial intelligence (AI) systems may displace radiologists and many other medical specialists. However, in a far more realistic future AI tools will assist radiologists by performing very complex functions with medical imaging data that are impossible or unfeasible today, according to a presentation at the RSNA/AAPM Symposium during the Radiological Society of…
Radiation therapy is a popular and effective treatment for many men with prostate cancer, and now a temporary gel offers greater protection for organs at risk during treatments. “Treating prostate cancer with radiation therapy can cause unintended injury to adjacent, healthy tissue, which can lead to bowel and urinary problems, as well as erectile dysfunction,” said Daniel Krauss, M.D., a…
Although targeted therapies have produced dramatic advances in our ability to control some types of advanced lung cancer, growth of the disease in the brain remains a major problem. Radiation is often used to treat deposits in the brain, but the best technique to deliver radiation can be controversial. Whole-brain radiation therapy, as its name suggest, treats the entire brain but can be…
Hitachi, Ltd. announced that it has entered into an agreement to provide Clinica Universidad de Navarra (CUN) with its proton beam therapy (PBT) system. The agreement includes PBT system maintenance following completion of the systems' installation. The PBT System will be installed at CUN's facility in Madrid, Spain and is equipped with state of the art technology including spot scanning…
In Rennes, France, more than 850 patients have already been treated with a top accelerator equipped with a multileaf collimator, the first of its kind in the country. Brittany’s capital Rennes is leading stereotactic radiotherapy practice as Eugène Marquis Cancer Centre gears up to welcome worldwide technicians to train on the latest CyberKnife system, Accuray’s powerful robotic radiosurgery…
Selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT) is often only looked at from a palliative perspective. However, the procedure is now also increasingly moving into the curative field, as Prof. Dr. Jens Ricke, Chair of Radiology at the Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich and Director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Radiology at the University Hospital of the LMU reports. “As a locoregionally used…
Breast diagnostics are undergoing considerable change, with new technology facilitating alternative procedures. Genetics and nuclear medicine also enhance diagnostic possibilities. During our EH interview, Professor Rüdiger Schulz-Wendtland described current changes in breast diagnostics. ‘To date, complementary breast diagnostics has comprised clinical, sonographic and mammographic…
A new EC-funded project will bring together medical and radiation scientists, physicists and clinicians to enhance the radiation protection of patients and medical professionals. The four-year MEDIRAD project, which kicked off in June 2017, is led by the European Institute for Biomedical Imaging Research – EIBIR (AT) and comprises a consortium of 33 partners from 14 European countries.
Agfa HealthCare and the Fédération des Hôpitaux Luxembourgeois (FHL) have revealed an ambitious cooperation: A national-level Enterprise Imaging platform will enable the cross-departmental sharing of medical images across all specialties.
Patients with unresectable, or inoperable, lung cancer are often given a dismal prognosis, with low rates of survival beyond a few years. Researchers exploring combination therapies have recently discovered improved survival rates by up to one year when patients treated with a newly formulated chemotherapy regimen are also given radiation therapy.
“When you’re told you have cancer, it’s not a light thing.” And when that diagnosis comes, patients and medical staff alike want to be able to focus on one thing: care that leads to the best outcome.
A recent Medical Imaging Equipment Age Profile report from AXREM provides worrying reading. The report highlights the continuing increase in the age of the installed base of medical imaging equipment across the United Kingdom.
Breast cancer patients who have radiotherapy targeted at the original tumour site experience fewer side effects five years after treatment than those who have whole breast radiotherapy, and their cancer is just as unlikely to return.
Unlike the USA, Italy, Germany or the Netherlands, Spain does not include hyperthermia in its national health catalogue. Worse, many non-medical centres are increasingly offering hyperthermia as an alternative treatment, a situation that infuriates Spanish oncologic radiotherapists.
The global WannaCry ransomware cyberattack had a particularly acute impact on health services across the UK. Mark Nicholls looks at how the NHS was left vulnerable to the WannaCry cyberattack. While affecting computers across the world – from Russia to the US – NHS hospitals were forced to cancel routine surgery and GP appointments as systems were affected by the cyberattack or were…
Spanish researchers are challenging the validity of many past and ongoing clinical trials and stress the importance of working with raw or preprocessed data in genetic information study.
Patients with early stage pancreatic cancer could be given longer to live if they receive radiotherapy at a high enough dose, according to research presented at the ESTRO 36 conference.
Children with cancer could be spared dozens of doses of general anaesthesia by projecting a video directly on to the inside of a radiotherapy machine during treatment, according to research presented at the ESTRO 36 conference.
Doctors have found that treating prostate cancer with a single, high dose of radiation delivered precisely to the site of the tumour results in good quality of life and fewer trips to the hospital, with adverse side effects that are no worse than if the radiation treatment had been given in several lower doses.
Although radiation therapy is an essential part of modern cancer treatment, and is indicated for about half of all new cancer patients, facilities for its provision are sadly lacking in many countries worldwide. Indeed, 29 out of 52 African nations have no radiotherapy facilities whatsoever. At the ESTRO 36 conference leaders of the European Society for Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) will…
The increased demand for imaging studies and workforce shortages have put strain on radiology services while technological advances enabled other medical disciplines to perform their own imaging examinations.
‘Breathe in. Hold your breath. Then we press the button’ – the times when this brief summation could be made about a radiographer work are long gone. As an imaging support worker, the radiology assistant helps radiologists with procedures such as biopsies, and also performs clerical tasks, such as handling appointments.
Patients with locally advanced rectal cancer have been treated with intra-operative radiotherapy (IORT) for over twenty years. Partly due to this type of radiation, survival rates in a group of patients considered to have inoperable cancer changed dramatically from five to 70 percent.
Radiologists and radiographers all over the world will once again celebrate the International Day of Radiology (IDoR) on November 8, which this year takes breast imaging as its main theme. The IDoR is an initiative of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
To treat or not to treat? That is the question researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) hope to answer with a new advance that could help doctors and their cancer patients decide if a particular therapy would be worth pursuing.
Dr Angel Gayete Cara took over the reins of the Spanish Society of Radiology (SERAM) in May, immediately after the society’s meeting in Bilbao. In an exclusive interview with European Hospital he revealed his vision for the next two years and how he means to help radiologists in their increasingly clinical role.
Men with very high-risk prostate cancer, who are treated at hospitals with a high proportion of administered radical local treatment (radiotherapy or prostatectomy), only have half of the mortality risk of men who are treated at hospitals with the lowest proportion. This is according to a new study conducted by researchers at Umeå University in Sweden.
Rectal cancer surgery - using a Da Vinci robot and conducted by Tas Qureshi, Consultant Surgeon and robotic lead at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust - was beamed live from his operating theatre by satellite to an international conference of specialist doctors, student doctors and to a worldwide audience via multimedia platforms with live audio and twitter feedback.
Neusoft Medical Systems, a limited company, is the leading supplier of medical imaging equipment in China, a country with more than 46,000 hospitals. The firm also provides equipment to hospitals in 109 other countries, amounting to 9,000 customers. Now Neusoft reports preparations to tap into European market.
‘The combination of nuclear medicine and modern imaging procedures such as CT and MRI is becoming increasingly important in the diagnosis, treatment planning and aftercare of cancerous diseases,’ explains Professor Katrine Åhlström Riklund, who presides over the newly established European Society for Hybrid Medical Imaging, ESHI.
The group of Russian and French researchers, with the participation of scientists from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, has succeeded to synthesize nanoparticles of ultrapure silicon, which exhibited the property of efficient photoluminescence, i.e., secondary light emission after photoexcitation. These particles were able to easily penetrate into cancer cells and it allowed to use them as…
A team from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste has obtained very promising results by applying gene therapy to glioblastoma. Tests in vitro and in vivo on mice provided very clear-cut results, and modelling demonstrates that the treatment targets at least six different points of tumour metabolism. Gene therapy, a technique that selectively attacks a tumour, might…
Colon cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in Germany. Prof. Dr. med. Sebastian Zeißig, group leader at the DFG Research Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) - Cluster of Excellence at the TU Dresden and physician at the Department of Medicine I, University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus Dresden, has now shown a decisive role of gut bacteria in the regulation of intestinal…
Small cell lung cancer is not usually detected until it is at an advanced stage, when metastases have already formed. Chemotherapy is very effective initially but, within a year, cancer recurs and this time does not respond to a course of chemotherapy. The research group headed by Gerhard Hamilton, University Department of Surgery at MedUni Vienna, has now managed to identify the reason for this…
Researchers have found that a combination of chemotherapy and modern radiotherapy can benefit patients with advanced nasopharyngeal cancer – a cancer that starts at the back of the nose. These cancers are very rare in the UK and so modern treatments had not been previously studied in patients with advanced disease.
On March 3, Radiotherapy Group clinicians at Ziekenhuis Gelderse Vallei (Ede, the Netherlands) used their Esteya electronic brachytherapy system for the first time to treat a 73-year-old male patient with a nodular basal cell carcinoma on his nose. Esteya is a form of high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy that applies high-precision radiotherapy directly to the cancer site, minimizing radiation to…
Accuray Incorporated announced today that the first centers in Qatar, Latvia, and Bulgaria are now equipped with its radiation therapy technology, demonstrating continued momentum in adoption of its devices in Europe, India, the Middle East and Africa (EIMEA). The CyberKnife® and TomoTherapy® Systems are now used in more than 40 countries to treat patients across the full spectrum of radiation…
Breast cancer screening has helped to detect cancer in its early stages, but it is unclear how important this contribution is to mortality reduction because treatment has greatly improved. Overdiagnosis and overtreatment remain associated risks that need to be fully assessed for screening to be of real benefit. Leading experts in this field passionately discussed these controversies in a…
Results from a long-term clinical trial conducted by cancer researchers at Houston Methodist Hospital show that combining radiation treatment with "suicide gene therapy," a technique in which prostate cancer cells are genetically modified so they signal a patient's immune system to attack them, provides a safe and effective one-two punch against the disease.
Led by Professor Teoh Swee Hin, scientists from Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) have successfully used dead bacteria to kill colorectal cancer cells. Harvesting the Clostridium sporogenes bacteria found commonly in soil, the NTU team was able to harness the bacteria in its dead form, and its secretions, to destroy colon tumours cells effectively.
It is estimated that half of all cancer patients suffer from a muscle wasting syndrome called cachexia. Cancer cachexia impairs quality of life and response to therapy, which increases morbidity and mortality of cancer patients. Currently, there is no approved treatment for muscle wasting but a new study from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and University…
An in-depth review of randomised trials on screening for breast, colorectal, cervical, prostate and lung cancers, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, shows that the benefits of mammographic screening are likely to have been overestimated.
What you see is what you get - unfortunately, this doesn’t always apply in cancer imaging. Why is it that something which looks conspicuous on an image later turns out not to be a tumour? Why, on the other hand, are things overlooked that later turn out to be cancer? Pathological findings are extremely important to help improve diagnostic precision in radiology. Both disciplines therefore…
Pathology is the gold standard of prostate diagnostics. Whilst the radiologist makes interpretations based on shadows and grey scale values visible on an image, the pathologist has the ‘fait accompli’ under the microscope. Professor Glen Kristiansen, Director at the Institute for Pathology at the University Hospital Bonn, explains why image-guided biopsies also make sense from the…
DITTA, the Global Diagnostic Imaging, Healthcare IT and Radiation Therapy Trade Association is, for the first time, attending the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Sixty‐Eighth World Health Assembly (WHA) from 18-26 May 2015 since DITTA granted the status of NGO in official relationship with WHO.
A global collaboration to expand access to advanced particle therapy worldwide was agreed this April between Belgian firm IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A.) and the Toshiba Corporation.
Results from a randomised controlled trial to compare the use of permanent radioactive implants (brachytherapy) with dose-escalated external beam radiotherapy in patients with prostate cancer show that the men who received brachytherapy were twice as likely to be cancer-free five years later. These results presented Professor James Morris, from the Department of Radiation Oncology, Vancouver…
Before 2013, when Professor Dietmar Dinter became partner of Radiologie Schwetzingen, a multi-discipline group practice specialised in radiology and nuclear medicine, he was senior resident at the Institute of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at University Hospital Mannheim (2003-2012) and head of its Nuclear Medicine Department (2009-2012). Was his work in nuclear medicine altered by the…
Researchers at University Medical Center (UMC) Utrecht are developing an innovative cancer treatment with the help of a grant from Alpe d’HuZes/Dutch Cancer Society (KWF) of nearly 300,000 euros. The treatment involves the injection of radioactive beads into tumors, thereby enabling a very precise localized radiotherapy.
The term ‘cancer’ describes more than 200 different diseases and every single one needs to be clearly understood and requires, ideally, individual treatment. To do this we need to deepen our understanding the cancer genome. Report: Anja Behringer
Radiotherapy always encounters particular challenges when a tumour is ‘mobile’. This is when radiotherapy must be carried out over several weeks. Within that period the tumour position, shape and expansion typically will keep changing. Thus radiotherapy needs continuous adaptation to maintain continuously precise radiation. Report: Chrissanthi Nikolakudi
Visiorad is an association of radiology, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine practices which serve the northwestern part of Hamburg and the adjacent suburban areas. Dr Timo Gomille, partner of Visiorad, and his team focus on breast diagnostics. A mainstay of their daily work is the RS80A – the Samsung ultrasound system which impresses with superior image quality and an innovative operating concept
Radiology will be in the spotlight on November 8, as radiologists celebrate the International Day of Radiology (IDoR) through a series of events and information campaigns to help the public better understand the role of medical imaging in healthcare.
Radiotherapy is being proposed to treat heart diseases, specifically for hypertension and atrial fibrillation (AF).
Two things that radiologists resist – structured reporting and (computer-assisted) quantification – are the very things that Gabriel Krestin believes are essential to advance diagnosis in the brave new world of omic-medicine that is emerging.
In 2007, Sara Doll (Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology, Heidelberg University) and Dr Frederik Giesel (Managing Senior Physician, Radiology Clinic, Department of Nuclear Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital) initiated the development of virtual anatomy for a seminar aimed at students in the pre-clinical phase of their medical degree course.
An innovative technology is enabling radiologists to provide more accurate diagnoses.
Toshiba ultrasound equipment is helping provide a better oncological and cosmetic outcome for women recovering from breast cancer treatment and surgery. Daniela Zimmermann discussed intraoperative ultrasound-guided breast surgery with surgeon Dr Monique Petrousjka van den Tol, from the Department of Surgical Oncology, VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands
In the country’s first scientific study to correlate the demographic changes and frequency of tumorous diseases, demographic changes have led scientists to forecast a significant increase in the number of cancerous diseases in coming years.
Cooperation between the individual diagnostic fields of radiology, pathology and laboratory medicine has increased in daily clinical routine over the last few years. To a large extent, the three disciplines are faced with the same requirements and problems.
Multidisciplinary tumour boards (MDTs) are widespread in the Netherlands, and ‘they tend to be proliferating lately,’ according to Professor Folkert van Kemenade, Chair of the Pathology department at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam.
Which technological advancements can we expect to see in the field of medical technology? How well can diagnosis and therapy be customized for each patient?
About 20 years ago the first tumour boards were set up in Germany. Initiated and led by surgeons, they not only invited oncologists, radiotherapists and radiologists to conferences but also, increasingly often, pathologists.
A major new cutting edge radiotherapy treatment will be available in the UK thanks to £250 million of government funding to build two new facilities in Manchester and London, Public Health Minister Anna Soubry confirmed on August, 1.
Apart from tumour immunologists themselves, for a long time oncologists have underestimated the role of the immune system in cancer treatment. Nonetheless, in recent years increasing attention has been given to this aspect of cancer.
Research using an analytical health economics model has suggested the current system of screening within the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is only moderately likely to be cost effective.
The 25the European Congress of Radiology ended yesterday in Vienna.
Hedvig Hricak, Chair of the Radiology Department at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA, describes emerging applications and potential trends in gynaecological cancer treatment described at the 15th International Symposium Crossing Barriers
Modern imaging techniques greatly enhance the treatment selection
For the 19th consecutive year the annual meeting of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), the European Congress of Radiology (ECR), takes place in Vienna.
‘We aim to develop an understanding of which novel research activities could bring benefits for patients,’ explained Professor Christof von Kalle, Director of the Department of Translational Oncology, NCT (German National Centre for Tumour Diseases) and the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), speaking on translational activities during the New Cancer Targets gathering in Heidelberg this…
A prototype for proton and ion therapy has been used clinically in Heidelberg since 2009. Built jointly by Siemens and GSI (Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt.
Unstructured workflow’ sounds like a contradiction in terms. Yet, this fresh approach for gathering individual patient records in the Veneto region of Italy is being rapidly adopted across Europe to improve care.
Much, if not even everything, may have been said already about the multimodal approach in breast diagnostics. However, Professor Rüdiger Schulz-Wendtland at the Institute of Radiology, University Hospital Erlangen, says there is still surprising news from this field – innovations in multimodal breast diagnostics, for example.
]‘We are very pleased to be able to offer our patients top quality and, most importantly, very precise radiotherapy,’ said Professor Wolfgang Mohnike, Medical Director of the Diagnostic and Therapeutic Centre (DTZ) in Berlin – one of the leading outpatient cancer centres in the city. The newly equipped Radiotherapy Centre at the DTZ was inaugurated at the beginning of June and the new…
Making prostate cancer therapy more effective, more comfortable for patients and less expensive for society? Dose escalation, up to 80 Gy and above, may be necessary to successfully treat localised prostate cancer with radiotherapy (RT).
Meeting with EH editor Brigitte Dinkloh, Congress Secretary Professor Alexis Ulrich MD (left), Assistant Medical Director at the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University of Heidelberg, outlined the scientific programme, discussed some impressive advances in surgical procedures, and explained why the gathering bears the slogan Surgery in Partnership.
Three radiologists, who focused on different clinical applications using different diagnostic techniques, have reached the same conclusion: the next-generation of ultrasound brings new capabilities for detection, differentiation and advanced diagnosis of disease, John Brosky reports.
Speaking at the ESR meets Radiation Oncologists session, Dr Gina Brown (Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London) emphasised that radiologists’ input is critical in treatment and surgical decisions and that radiologists, oncologists and surgeons should work more closely in the planning and delivery of treatment and surgery for the overall benefit and long-term well-being of rectal cancer…
They examine the structure of the heart muscle with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or evaluate the status of the coronary vessels with computed tomography (CT): radiologists increasingly use imaging methods to prevent or to assess cardiac diseases.
20,000 participants attended ECR 2011 – a record its organising body, the European Society of Radiology (ESR), which represents more than 56,000 radiologists worldwide, is keen to surpass. Thus, for 2012, it set out to create an even more attractive, versatile programme, which is led by Congress President Lorenzo Bonomo, Professor of Radiology and Chairman of the Department of Radiological…
Early this year the radiology and nuclear medicine practice of Doctors Andreas Blynow, Frank Muller, Jorg Kowalski in Ludwigshafen, Germany, began to offer breast examinations using Europe’s first Positron Emission Mammography (PEM) scanner. With 15 years experience with Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Dr Muller introduced the new PEM scanner to the partners’ practice to detect and assess…
Currently there is a truly enormous hole in the ground in the city of Wiener Neustadt, Austria, but by summer 2012 MedAustron, one of the most modern centres for ion therapy and research in Europe, is to be built here.
PBT uses a high-energy beam of particles to destroy cancer cells by more accurately targeting the affected areas and is particularly suitable for complex childhood cancers. It also increases success rates and reduces side effects, such as deafness, loss of IQ and secondary cancers.
When scanning seizures, Dr Walter Kucharczyk, director of MRI at Toronto General Hospital, believes that MRI still remains the best imaging test to discover if there is an anatomic or structural abnormality that might account for a seizure.
Medical imaging is no longer limited to diagnosis and evaluation. New, high resolution imaging systems enable very precise positioning of lasers, endoscopes and micro-instruments for surgery near the nerves, spinal cord or blood vessels and for selective tumour destruction, with minimum levels of pain and low complication rates.
Unique software embeds an extensively annotated normal template into a patient’s axial images, Vinodh A Kumar MD reports from the Division of Diagnostic Imaging and Physics, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, Texas
Gathering in Austria, plastic surgeons proclaim the need for clarification and standards. Michael Krassnitzer reports
A combination of several well-known safety procedures could greatly reduce patient-harming errors in the use of radiation to treat cancer, according to a new study led by Johns Hopkins researchers.
ALOKA Holding Europe AG, the innovator in ultrasound, is working with the world renowned liver surgeon, Professor Guido Torzilli to explore the clinical benefits of intra-operative ultrasound in hepatic cancer cases. Ultrasound has one enormous advantage over traditional techniques, such as MRI and CT, since it can be used intra-operatively. The success of this alternative technique for…
Yes, it’s in beautiful Dresden again and -- as in 2006 when the city last hosted the Congress of the German Society for Senology -- this year’s Congress President is Professor Rüdiger Schulz-Wendtland (Department of Radiology, University of Erlangen). However, the repetition ends there; the congress topics will be anything but repeated. Report: Meike Lerner
A major public hospital has become the first in Paris to be equipped with a Gamma Knife, the device that enables the surgeon to operate on the brain with no blade or blood involved.
As one of the first in Europe, the FUS Centre at the Klinikum Dachau in Germany introduced MRgFUS in 2008 as a gentle alternative for the treatment of fibroids. The success that has since been achieved in this encouraged Dr Matthias Matzko, head of radiology and of the FUS Centre, to take on a leading role with the introduction to the market of the second product generation, the ExAblate One.…
Thinking of the future of imaging, inevitably PET-MRI springs to mind. The fascination of this novel hybrid technology is great, seeing how it combines the best from three imaging areas: anatomy, function and metabolism. The further development of functional procedures in oncology is raising particularly high expectations. However, how extensive the use of this potentiated image information will…
As one of the most advanced forms of precision radiotherapy, proton therapy enables the irradiation of tumours located deep within the body, in the proximity of critical organs, such as the optic nerve or some brain areas. The Institut Curie has renovated its proton therapy centre in Orsay near Paris. Since 1991, when the original centre opened, it has treated over 5,000 patients (4,000 for eye…
Until now, interventional and endoscopic therapies have held little importance in common cancer treatment. However, given the trend towards personalised medicine and targeted cancer therapy, increasing attention is being paid to reasonable complements to traditional cancer surgery.
A double-edged sword would be a good analogy for diagnostic imaging in 2010. New ways to utilise imaging technologies are being developed, imaging equipment is doing more, faster than ever, and image processing software is increasingly innovative. Today's radiology exams are ‘slicing’ through the body to reveal anatomy with increasing clarity for better diagnoses and therapeutic treatment…
Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are the engine that drives tumour growth. They can not only reproduce themselves but also differentiate to form all the specialised cells found within a tumour. While chemotherapy and radiotherapy non-specifically target all rapidly dividing cells, there is increasing evidence that CSCs are more resistant to these treatments. Report: Karoline Laarmann
How does a hospital decide what to do about in-house radiology if, for example, its consultant retires? Select a ‘new broom’ to brush out earlier practices, or make this an opportunity to redefine its radiology department’s services and objectives? In the latter case, outsourcing to receive diagnoses from an external radiologist might be potentially interesting. However, Dr Winfried…
When planning radiotherapy the combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and Computed tomography (CT) can provide a better outcome than CT alone. Michael Krassnitzer asked Terri Bresenham MSc BSc, Vice President for Molecular Imaging at GE Healthcare, for her views on the value of PET/CT, the new EANM guidelines, novel tracers and the future of other hybrid imaging technologies.
Women could be undergoing unnecessary breast surgery as a result of having magnetic resonance imaging, says an expert on bmj.com. In the last decade, says Malcolm Kell, Consultant Surgeon and Senior Lecturer at the Eccles Breast Screening Unit at University College Dublin, MRI or magnetic resonance mammography has become the most favoured type of investigation for high risk patients when combined…
During his Honorary Lecture at the 8th Düsseldorf Breast Cancer Conference in Germany world renowned surgeon and oncologist Prof. Veronesi reflected about the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.
Italian surgeon and oncologist Prof. Dr. Umberto Veronesi, Founder and Scientific Director of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan and former National Health Minister (2000 – 2001), is considered to be one of the biggest authorities on breast cancer research of our time. Many breakthrough changings in cancer medicine sustainably go back on his researches, which once earned him also a…
This year's European Congress for Orthopaedics, Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology, organised by the European Federation of National Associations of Orthopaedics and Traumatology (EFORT) and which will in tandem with the Spanish Orthopaedic and Traumatology Society (SECOT) Congress, is expected to draw 7,500 international participants.
Clinicians gathering in Brussels for the first-ever conference on Molecular Imaging in Radiation Oncology (MIRO), from 18-20 March, will take the first steps toward setting practice guidelines for using PET scans to target radiotherapy, a task that will culminate with publication of these recommendations in September.
There are huge differences in the quality of medical IT systems, particularly in some East European countries. However, recent political and economic changes in that region have been accompanied by improved quality standards. In Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Russia, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey and Switzerland, the privately funded group Euromedic…
Agenzia Provinciale Per la Protonterapia (ATreP) has signed a contract with Ion Beam Applications S.A. (IBA), based in Luvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, for the installation of a proton therapy centre in a new hospital planned for Trento. Over the next 15 years, IBA will provide the construction, installation and technical operation of this the first gantry-equipped proton therapy-dedicated centre in…
Breast and cervical cancer together account for more than one quarter of all female cancer deaths worldwide, with the majority – including more than 85 % of all cervical cancer deaths – occurring in developing countries. However, a small number of highly effective programs demonstrate that much can be done to reduce risk and increase sustainable access to diagnosis and treatment for these…
Brain tumors are the primary cause of cancer mortality in children. Even if a cure is possible, young patients often suffer tremendously from the stressful treatment which can be harmful to the developing brain. Therefore, there is an urgent need for target-oriented, gentle treatment methods. The most important childhood brain tumors are medulloblastoma, which is diagnosed in approximately one…
Scientists are closer to discovering why some people respond to breast cancer radiotherapy better than others, according to Breast Cancer Campaign. Dr Laura Smith, at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds, has been awarded a pilot grant by Breast Cancer Campaign, to study why some types of breast cancers are difficult to destroy with radiotherapy.
Don’t forget – Friday will be an important day for discussions on cross-border healthcare, travel medicine and growing liaisons with India, all subjects highlighted in special sessions at Medica Media.
Cancer imaging is one of the most promising medical fields. Hybrid technologies, such as PET/CT or future MRI/PET, are the tools radiologists and oncologists use to gain ever deeper insights into the biological characteristics of tumours. During the Medica Congress the Integrated diagnostics and therapy in oncology imaging session (Thursday 19 November) innovative tools and related developments…
Cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), one of the most frequently occurring cancers throughout the world, are expected to increase dramatically in the next 10-15 years in Germany alone. The main reason is the increased occurrence of fatty hepatitis. Thus, in the future, interventional radiologists will also be increasingly involved in HCC patients treatment.
A new initiative designed to inform and educate policymakers at national, European, and global level about the needs of the oncology community was launched at Europe's largest cancer congress, ECCO 15 — ESMO 34, in Berlin. The European Academy of Cancer Sciences will help to keep the interests of cancer patients at the forefront of the policy agenda, and avoid policy decisions that had a…
A new study shows that a radioactive skin patch can safely and successfully treat basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancers, according to researchers from India. The skin patch, which delivers the radioactive phosphorus-32, is nontoxic and could be an excellent alternative to surgery or radiotherapy in cases where carrying out these treatments is difficult.
Intra-operative radiotherapy (IORT) using the Intrabeam system from Carl Zeiss has been confirmed as a new alternative to the current approach to radiotherapy for breast cancer, by scientists and physicians at a symposium on IORT technological developments held in Germany.
Breast-specific gamma imaging (BSGI) is a promising new technology designed to supplement mammography and breast ultrasound examinations when these show suspicious findings. By helping to detect early stage breast cancer it may reduce significantly the number of negative biopsies performed. Dilon Technologies (Newport News, Virginia), pioneer of this technology, received the CE Mark to sell its…
Although the potential of proton therapy was recognised over half a century ago, and since its development is now known to deliver a radiation beam accurately into a tumour without damaging surrounding tissue, high equipment costs limit its general introduction. Mark Nicholls reports on a British hospital with two decades of experience in its use - and value
IMRT is an evolving method of treatment for complex forms of cancer. Although patients benefit from treatment, a precise evaluation of that benefit and overall cost-effectiveness of the method is still an uncertain science. Mark Nicholls reports
Early detection currently remains the most promising way to optimise the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, lower the mortality rate resulting from this disease, and improve patients' quality of life.
To date, there is insufficient knowledge as to the cause of this disease, or how to prevent it. We asked some of our EH correspondents to report on measures taken in their countries to ensure that men are made more aware of this disease and whether screening services are provided for early prostate cancer detection.
HDR brachytherapy patients require at least six hours between treatment sessions to enable the body to recover. A leading provincial cancer hospital has become the first in the UK - and one of the first in Europe - to deliver two high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy radiotherapy treatments in the same day.
Real-time image guidance during radiation therapy could prove the ultimate means to ramp tumour targeting accuracy and enable real-time tracking of moving targets. MR imaging enables precise soft-tissue visualization with no additional ionizing radiation exposure. Unfortunately, MR systems and linear accelerators are inherently incompatible and some innovative design work is required for them to…
The Institute of Cancer Research in London, UK, offers a new research tool for calculating emission spectra from X-ray systems on their website. The SpekCalc computer programm is made available free of charge to medical physicists who need to describe the spectrum generated by an X-ray set used in radiotherapy and diagnostic radiology.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and GE Healthcare plan to establish over 25 local cancer centres in various countries within the coming decade.
During the MCC Hospital World 2008 congress, held in Berlin this September, speakers from international firms and hospital chains discussed the demands and necessities for future healthcare.
In line of the MCC Hospital World 2008, the International Congress for Decision Makers in the Hospital Market, that took place in September in Berlin, Germany, several highly regarded speakers from international companies and hospital chains draw a picture of the demands and necessities of the future healthcare environment.
Tumour ablation - and Radiofrequency (RF) ablation in particular - is getting more and more important in oncology. The therapy option offers benefits in terms of costs, ease of set-up and flexibility so that experts see the need to expand the applications of it.
More than 4,500 cancer and radiotherapy specialists will gather in Göteborg, Sweden, this September for the 27th annual congress of ESTRO. ESTRO 27 is to be held between the 14th and 18th September 2008 at the Göteborg Convention Centre in Göteborg.
Limited public and political awareness of colorectal cancer (CRC), few formal screenings programms, delayed access to treatment - the first cross-country report on the management and funding of colorectal cancer (CRC) reveals an urgent need for action to improve the survival of patients in Europe and Australia.
When tumours are situated in difficult locations, e.g. near the brain, lungs, prostate or abdomen, patients treated with conventional radiation equipment often suffer severe side effects, which include bleeding, chronic infections or organ function limitations.
An intraoperative MRI system being developed by UK firm Specialty Magnetics could speed the treatment of breast-cancer patients. The company is working on a dedicated intraoperative MR breast scanner that will enable doctors to carry out image-guided treatments as soon as disease is detected and diagnosed.
Prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer in men with about 49,000 newly diagnosed cancers in Germany and 6,000 in the Netherlands, annually.
Nearly 14 000 urologists from 84 countries attended the 23rd Annual congress of the European Association of Urology held in Milan, where changing horizons in the diagnosis and therapy of prostate cancer, a symposium sponsored by Ipsen, underlined the main focus of the entire event.
Artiste is a linear accelerator and CT scanner combined. At the German Cancer Research Centre, a team of scientists led by Professors Wolfgang Schlegel and Uwe Oelfke of the Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology division, contributed substantially to the technical development of the Artiste platform. They report that users will be able to observe and correct the actual position, extension and…
For individualised radiotherapy, high-precision delineation and characterisation of the tumour is critical. If highest radiation doses are delivered in a targeted fashion, the chance of tumour cell kill increases and tumour control probability is enhanced.
By Rudolf Schwarz and Andreas Krüll, of the Section of Radiation Oncology Department, Ambulanzzentrum GmbH of the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
According to a study published by Cancer Research UK scientists the survival rates of bladder cancer patients treated with radiotherapy are the same as those of patients undergoing radical cystectomy. The researchers investigated the medical records of 169 patients with invasive bladder cancer that were treated in Leeds between 1996 and 2000.
The Swedish radiotherapy and radiosurgery specialist Elekta is in negotiations to buy CMS, the St Louis, MO-based supplier of radiotherapy treatment-planning (RTP) systems, for $75 million in cash.
Enzymes are biocatalysts that control the different metabolic processes of living organisms. These range from digestion to the copying of genetic information.
Novalis Tx, a system for stereotactic radiosurgery, has resulted from a partnership between the Munich-based medical technology company BrainLAB AG and Varian Medical Systems Inc, two firms that have successfully worked together on radiation therapy products for over a decade. The powerful linear accelerator Trilogy Tx and special technology for beam focusing was contributed by Varian; BrainLAB,…
The ERSPC is the world's biggest study of screening of prostate cancer. It involves up to 260,000 men, 220,000 of them in the age group 55-75 years old. Professor Chris Bangma, Director of the ERSPC and Chairman of the urology department at the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam (headquarters of the ERSPC) explains the study's background and aims
Andalusía - Surgery and chemotherapy have overtaken radiotherapy for cancer treatments.
Radiotherapy treatment planning relies on transversal CT images. They form a basis for treatment planning, dose calculation and increasingly the plan localization for external radiation therapy, called CT simulation. A dedicated CT scanner for radiotherapy plan simulation is one of the most essential pieces of equipment in a modern radiotherapy department. In contrast to external beam…
An interview with Dr. Ulrich Thalacker on the work carried out by Baden-Wuerttemberg's only practice administering radiotherapy, based on computerassisted 3D therapy planning and 'unconventional' use of a CT scanner as a module of the radiation planning system.
The interest in using traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) alongside conventional Western medical care has steadily increased among European physicians; it is no longer unusual, for example, for acupuncture to be suggested by a doctor to help fight tobacco addiction, or to ease a persistent musculoskeletal problem.
An independent report that suggests better ways to use the UK's current radiotherapy resources, as well as predicting the needs of a radiotherapy service in the future, has been released by the National Radiotherapy Advisory Group (NRAG), led by national cancer director Professor Mike Richards, and Dr Michael Williams, vice president of the Royal College of Radiologists.
`ELIOT means that single-fraction radiation of 21 Gy is delivered directly to the tumour bed during a surgical intervention, to a depth of about 3 cm,´ Professor Prott explained.
When the Siemens board of directors announced its decision for the new Siemens CEO on Sunday, the economic world was surprised: Not only that the name Peter Löscher was never mentioned in the previous discussions about a successor of Klaus Kleinfeld, but hardly anybody knew Loescher´s name in any enconomic context.
One of Europe's most modern radiology and diagnostics centres opened in Vienna-Donaustadt, Austria, this January.
Endovascular brachytherapy has been successfully modified by scientists at Isotopen Technologie München AG (ITM), solving problems of radiation exposure to Rhenium-188. The researchers are now producing Rhenium-188 with previously unknown high specific activity in a new type of generator, Isotopen Technologie reports.
Sweden - ScandiDos AB is marketing a sensor module capable of one-step 3-D and 4-D dose verification.
Better measurement standards for high-intensity focused-ultrasound (HIFU) are necessary.
After previous meetings in the USA (2002) and Japan (2004), this October the 3rd International Workshop of Pulmonary Functional Imaging (IWPFI) took place in the German Cancer Research Centre, based in Heidelberg University, Germany. " 'The clinicians' need for earlier and more detailed diagnosis in pulmonary disease demands a joint interdisciplinary effort to push the limits in pulmonary…
The positive effects of proton rays have been known for years. However, Germany still lacks institutions that utilise those effects.
Unlike conventional radiation therapy, selective, internal radiotherapy (SIRT), uses tiny radio-active microspheres to attack malignant liver tumours.
Generating targeting agents for diagnostics, prognostics and radiotherapy, by designing biochemically specific elements in contrast agents to be the targeting molecules attached to and carrying diagnostic or radiotherapeutic molecules to abnormal cells.
Radiotherapy affects bone marrow cells, lowering production of white blood cells. New research, published in The Journal of Gene Medicine, suggests that pre-treatment with a gene therapy 'shield' could defend healthy bone marrow cells.
The Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute (Masarykúv onkologick´y ústav - MOÚ) in is unique in the Czech Republic, for it covers all aspects of cancer care, provides medical training plus public health education, and participates in research. Around 180,000 outpatients and about 7,000 in-patients are treated annually. By Pavel Andres MD, Deputy Director of Medical Preventive Care at the Masaryk…
Peter Loescher has worked at the cutting edge of the pharmaceutical industry for 17 years. In the latter part of this period, for example, he headed Hoechst's division in Japan, where he was also spokesperson for the European pharmaceutical industry, negotiating with the Japanese government during its healthcare reform in 2002.
Following enthusiastic reactions to the Aquilion Large Bore (LB) scanner, when shown as a work in progress at last year's ECR, and with orders in hand, Toshiba has commenced production.
The UK - In the 1990s, the nationally co-ordinated NHS Breast Screening Programme was already saving lives - a 21% fall in breast cancer mortality over the last decade and, with the cervical screening programme, this was viewed as among the best cancer screening programmes in the world. However, in that period, the country's cancer services, as a whole did not match up to those of other European…
Exomio, a new simulation technique, improves the accuracy of radiation therapy and reduces treatment planning time to a matter of minutes, according to scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research IGD, who developed the system with industrial partners MedCom GmbH and Medintec GmbH. They also report that the product has obtained worldwide clinical approval and that 60…
Professor Wolfgang Schlegel, Head of the Department of Medical Physics at the German Cancer Research Centre, has been awarded the 2003 clinical section of the German Cancer Award, for significantly improving the precision with which radiation beams can be directed at a tumour.
Ionizing radiation is not visible to the human eye. It does not smell or make a noise, and you cannot feel it. In the complex and busy environment of a hospital, how can you ensure that patients and staff are not exposed to more ionizing radiation than necessary?