Ten years' blindness of the right eye: A rare presentation of an orbital melanoma.

Benign and malignant orbital tumours develop from the orbit or invade it from the surrounding tissues. Ocular melanoma is a rare but potentially devastating malignancy arising from the melanocytes of the uveal tract, conjunctiva, or orbit. The poor overall survival depends mainly on its high metastatic rate. Signs and symptoms are variables mainly depending on the size of the tumour. Its treatment consists generally of surgery, radiotherapy or both. We report a case of a patient suffering from unilateral blindness for the last 10 years with a recent swelling of the orbit. The pathological analysis described a uveal melanoma. The patient benefitted from a total orbital exenteration with reconstruction using a temporal flap. Thereafter, the patient received adjuvant radiotherapy and immunotherapy. The patient was in complete remission. No recurrence was highlighted after 2 years of follow-up.

Lymphocyte-sparing pelvic radiotherapy for prostate cancer: An in-silico study.

Background and Purpose: Evidence regarding radiation-induced lymphopenia and its negative impact on oncological outcome is incrementing. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of lymphocyte-rich organs at risk (LOAR) sparing in pelvic irradiation for localized prostate cancer and to estimate its impact on the effective dose to circulating immune cells (EDIC). Materials and Methods: Twenty patients with pelvic nodal and prostate or prostate bed irradiation were included. The following bone marrow (BM) structures were delineated as LOARs using semi-automatic segmentation: lumbosacral spine (Ls-BM), ilium (Il-BM), lower pelvis (Lp-BM), and the combined whole-pelvis (Wp-BM). Twenty new lymphocyte sparing treatment plans (LS plans) were calculated, optimizing doses to LOARs while maintaining strict coverage of the targets and respecting standard OARs dose constraints. Finally, we elaborated an EDIC calculation model for pelvic irradiation. Results: LS plans showed a statistically significant dose decrease for LOAR compared to standard of care plans without compromising target coverage nor classic OAR dose constraints: in prostate plans, the V40Gy for Ls-BM, Il-BM, and Lp-BM was decreased by 23 %, 36 %, 52 % respectively. For prostate bed plans, the V40Gy for Ls-BM, Il-BM, and Lp-BM was decreased by 25 %, 59 %, 56 %, respectively. For Wp-BM, the V10Gy, V20Gy, and Dmean have been decreased by 3 %, 14 %, 15 %, and by 5 %, 15 %, 17 %, respectively for prostate and prostate bed plans. A statistically significant decrease in EDIC was seen for LS plans in both groups. Conclusions: We successfully demonstrated the feasability of lympocyte-sparing treatment planning in pelvic irradiation, also proposing a model for EDIC calculation.

Do refined consensus guidelines improve the uniformity of clinical target volume delineation for rectal cancer? Results of a national review project.

In a previous national central review project, 74% of the rectal cancer clinical target volumes (CTVs) needed a modification. In a follow-up initiative, we evaluated whether the use of refined international consensus guidelines improves the uniformity of CTV delineation in clinical practice.

Cardiotoxic effects of tangential breast irradiation in early breast cancer patients: the role of irradiated heart volume.

PURPOSE: To assess the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) after postlumpectomy irradiation restricted to tangential fields. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We assessed the incidence of CVD in 1601 patients with T1-2N0 breast cancer (BC) treated with breast tangentials in five different hospitals between 1980 and 1993. Patients treated with radiation fields other than breast tangentials and those treated with adjuvant chemotherapy were excluded. For patients with left-sided BC, maximum heart distance (MHD) was measured on the simulator films as a proxy for irradiated heart volume. Risk of CVD by laterality and MHD categories was evaluated by Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. RESULTS: Follow-up was complete for 94% of the patients, and median follow-up was 16 years. The incidence of CVD overall was 14.1%, of ischemic heart disease 7.3%, and for other types of heart disease 9.2%, with a median time to event of 10 to 11 years. The incidence of CVD was 11.6% in patients with right-sided BC, compared with 16.0% in left-sided cases. The hazard ratio associated with left-sided vs. right-sided BC was 1.38 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05-1.81) for CVD overall, 1.35 (95% CI, 0.93-1.98) for ischemic heart disease , and 1.53 (95% CI, 1.09-2.15) for other heart disease, adjusted for age, diabetes, and history of CVD. The risk of CVD did not significantly increase with increasing MHD. CONCLUSIONS: Patients irradiated for left-sided BC with tangential fields have a higher incidence of CVD compared with those with right-sided cancer. However, the risk does not seem to increase with larger irradiated heart volumes.