The background and purpose of this paper is to investigate adherence, exercise performance levels and associated factors in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients participating in a guided home-based prophylactic exercise program during and after treatment [swallowing sparing intensity modulated radiation …

In patients with cancer, weight loss can be related to simple starvation, disturbed metabolism, or both. In patients with head and neck cancer (HNC), weight loss often is attributed to simple starvation because the obvious oral symptoms are known to hinder dietary intake. In this population, cachexia …

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Radiotherapy of the head and neck is challenged by the relatively large number of organs-at-risk close to the tumor. Biologically-oriented objective functions (OF) could optimally distribute the dose among the organs-at-risk. We aimed to explore OFs based on multivariable normal …

OBJECTIVES: To demonstrate that novice dosimetry planners efficiently create clinically acceptable IMRT plans for head and neck cancer (HNC) patients using a commercially available multicriteria optimization (MCO) system. METHODS: Twenty HNC patients were enrolled in this in-silico comparative planning …

Background and purpose: Treatment plan verification of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is generally performed with the gamma index (GI) evaluation method, which is difficult to extrapolate to clinical implications. Incorporating Dose Volume Histogram (DVH) information can compensate for this. …

PURPOSE: To determine the impact of late radiation-induced toxicity on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among patients with prostate cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The study sample was composed of 227 patients, treated with external beam radiotherapy. Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events …

Purpose To investigate the course of quality of life (QoL) among prostate cancer patients treated with external beam radiotherapy and to compare the results with QoL of a normal age-matched reference population. Conclusion Prostate cancer patients experience a small worsening of QoL as compared with …

PURPOSE: Advanced radiotherapy treatments require appropriate quality assurance (QA) to verify 3D dose distributions. Moreover, increase in patient numbers demand efficient QA-methods. In this study, a time efficient method that combines model-based QA and measurement-based QA was developed; i.e., the …

Quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients after treatment may not only be affected by the treatment itself, but also by non-treatment related factors such as co-morbidity. As co-morbidity among prostate cancer patients is prevalent it is relevant to understand its impact on QoL. In this reagard, a comparison …

Assessment and monitoring of fat-free mass (FFM) is of clinical importance, because FFM is reflective of body cell mass, the total mass of protein-rich, metabolically active cells which is affected during malnutrition and therefore related to clinical outcome. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is …