Water, mineral waters and health.

The authors focus on water resources and the use of mineral waters in human nutrition, especially in the different stages of life, in physical activity and in the presence of some morbid conditions. Mineral water is characterized by its purity at source, its content in minerals, trace elements and other constituents, its conservation and its healing properties recognized by the Ministry of Health after clinical and pharmacological trials. Based on total salt content in grams after evaporation of 1l mineral water dried at 180 degrees C (dry residues), mineral waters can be classified as: waters with a very low mineral content, waters low in mineral content, waters with a medium mineral content, and strongly mineralized waters. Based on ion composition mineral waters can be classified as: bicarbonate waters, sulfate waters, sodium chloride or saltwater, sulfuric waters. Based on biological activity mineral waters can be classified as: diuretic waters, cathartic waters, waters with antiphlogistic properties. Instructions for use, doses, and current regulations are included.

Urinary bladder preservation for muscle-invasive bladder cancer: a survey among radiation oncologists of Lombardy, Italy.

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: Bladder preservation is a treatment option in muscle-invasive bladder carcinoma. The most investigated approach is a trimodality schedule including maximum transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURBT) followed by chemoradiotherapy. Our aim was to evaluate the use of bladder preservation by radiation oncologists of the Lombardy region in Italy. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN: A survey with 13 items regarding data of 2012 was sent to all 32 radiotherapy centers within the collaboration between the Lombardy Oncological Network and the Lombardy Section of the Italian Society of Oncological Radiotherapy. RESULTS: Thirteen centers (41%) answered the survey; the presented data come from 11 active centers. In these centers, 11,748 patients were treated with external-beam radiotherapy in 2012, 100 of whom having bladder cancer (0.9%). 74/100 patients received radiotherapy as palliative treatment for T, N or M lesions. A further 9 and 5 patients received radiotherapy for oligometastatic disease (ablative doses to small volumes) and postoperatively, respectively. Bladder preservation was performed in 12 cases and included trimodality and other strategies (mainly TURBT followed by radiotherapy). A multidisciplinary urology tumor board met regularly in 5 of 11 centers. All responders declared their interest in the Lombardy multicenter collaboration on bladder preservation. CONCLUSIONS: Our survey showed that bladder preservation is rarely used in Lombardy despite the availability of the latest radiotherapy technologies and the presence of an urology tumor board in half of the centers. The initiative of multicenter and multidisciplinary collaboration was undertaken to prepare the platform for bladder preservation as a treatment option in selected patients.

Stereotactic radiotherapy for adrenal gland metastases: university of Florence experience.

PURPOSE: To evaluate a retrospective single-institution outcome after hypofractionated stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for adrenal metastases. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Between February 2002 and December 2009, we treated 48 patients with SBRT for adrenal metastases. The median age of the patient population was 62.7 years (range, 43-77 years). In the majority of patients, the prescription dose was 36 Gy in 3 fractions (70% isodose, 17.14 Gy per fraction at the isocenter). Eight patients were treated with single-fraction stereotactic radiosurgery and forty patients with multi-fraction stereotactic radiotherapy. RESULTS: Overall, the series of patients was followed up for a median of 16.2 months (range, 3-63 months). At the time of analysis, 20 patients were alive and 28 patients were dead. The 1- and 2-year actuarial overall survival rates were 39.7% and 14.5%, respectively. We recorded 48 distant failures and 2 local failures, with a median interval to local failure of 4.9 months. The actuarial 1-year disease control rate was 9%; the actuarial 1- and 2-year local control rate was 90%. CONCLUSION: Our retrospective study indicated that SBRT for the treatment of adrenal metastases represents a safe and effective option with a control rate of 90% at 2 years.

Integral dose and radiation-induced secondary malignancies: comparison between stereotactic body radiation therapy and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy.

The aim of the present paper is to compare the integral dose received by non-tumor tissue (NTID) in stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) with modified LINAC with that received by three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), estimating possible correlations between NTID and radiation-induced secondary malignancy risk. Eight patients with intrathoracic lesions were treated with SBRT, 23 Gy × 1 fraction. All patients were then replanned for 3D-CRT, maintaining the same target coverage and applying a dose scheme of 2 Gy × 32 fractions. The dose equivalence between the different treatment modalities was achieved assuming α/ß = 10 Gy for tumor tissue and imposing the same biological effective dose (BED) on the target (BED = 76 Gy(10)). Total NTIDs for both techniques was calculated considering α/ß = 3 Gy for healthy tissue. Excess absolute cancer risk (EAR) was calculated for various organs using a mechanistic model that includes fractionation effects. A paired two-tailed Student t-test was performed to determine statistically significant differences between the data (p ≤ 0.05). Our study indicates that despite the fact that for all patients integral dose is higher for SBRT treatments than 3D-CRT (p = 0.002), secondary cancer risk associated to SBRT patients is significantly smaller than that calculated for 3D-CRT (p = 0.001). This suggests that integral dose is not a good estimator for quantifying cancer induction. Indeed, for the model and parameters used, hypofractionated radiotherapy has the potential for secondary cancer reduction. The development of reliable secondary cancer risk models seems to be a key issue in fractionated radiotherapy. Further assessments of integral doses received with 3D-CRT and other special techniques are also strongly encouraged.