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.
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…
Encouraged by the success of the Dual-Source CT system Somatom Definition with two X-ray tubes that simultaneously generate different energies, Siemens Healthcare has already developed six specific dual energy applications. At the ECR 2008, the company presents four new applications that simplify the diagnosis of diseases of the heart, brain, lungs and extremity joints.
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.
A new American Cancer Society report estimates that there will be over 12 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths (about 20,000 cancer deaths a day) worldwide in 2007. The estimate comes from the first-ever Global Cancer Facts & Figures, the latest addition to the American Cancer Society's family of Facts & Figures publications.
Change is occurring at a rapid rate in cancer care - in many European countries cancer services are now being provided primarily in an ambulatory or outpatient setting with subsequent change of resources. Karen Luker, Professor of Community Nursing at the Universtiy of Manchester, UK, thinks that specialist nurses should not only refresh their knowledge of existing and new therapies. As the face…
"If you think 53 makes you old enough to retire, then fine, go ahead and retire. But don't expect the state to pay for it." President Nicolas Sarkozy, during his election campaign
The European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress is the world's biggest annual scientific gathering in respiratory medicine.
Lung cancer is the main cause of deaths due to cancer in human males and the incidence is constantly increasing. A cure rate of only 10% has been reported because most neoplastic lesions are diagnosed too late. However, when lung cancer is diagnosed early and surgical resection performed (stage 1 cancer), 5-year survival is significantly improved and may reach 70%.
Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is the combination of ultrasound and endoscopy, which allows placement of high-frequency transducers close to the intestinal wall and adjacent structures. As EUS enters its third decade, it is used for locoregional staging of many upper gastrointestinal malignancies, including cancers of the oesophagus, stomach, duodenum, ampulla of Vater, extrahepatic bile ducts and…
Lung cancer has a high mortality: Despite prevention programms each year 1.3 million people die due to malignant mutation of lung cells. It's the most common cause of cancer-related death in men, second most common in women.
Excluding pulmonary coin lesions potentially caused by metastasis of extrathoracic malignant tumours or as the principal indication of early lung carcinomas is one of the most frequent tasks in plain film imaging and computed tomography examination of the thorax.
In molecular medicine - and particularly in oncology - Siemens Medical Solutions is concentrating on further development of the FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) biomarker to improve identification of certain tumours.
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…
AstraZeneca has been collaborating with researchers who detected a potential Aurora B inhibitor.
Workers suffer long-term health effects five years after World Trade Center terrorist attacks.
Among the research articles published in this issue, are some ...
Dr Christiane Eickelberg, of the University of Giessen Lung Centre (UGLC), outlines the centre's research projects, aims and academic offerings
From burden to therapy. By Andrea Rossi MD, Director of the Respiratory Division at Bergamo General Hospital Bergamo, Italy, and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Respiratory Society
USA - Engineers are developing a tiny wireless device - the size of a rice grain - to be implanted in tumours to indicate the precise radiation dose received and to locate the exact position of tumours during treatment.
With increasing numbers of nurses specialising the care of lung cancer patients, The National Lung Cancer Forum for Nurses (NLCFN) was established in 1997 to offer them a network for information exchange and to support nurses working in 'isolation' due to their changing and different roles.
Denmark - Regular drinkers significantly increase their risk of rectal cancer, but that risk is reduced if wine makes up a third or more of weekly consumption, according to research carried out by Professor Morten Grønbaek, at the Centre for Alcohol Research, National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen, published in the journal GUT.