Clinical implementation of total skin electron beam (TSEB) therapy: a review of the relevant literature.

Total skin electron beam therapy has been in medical service since the middle of the last century in order to confront rare skin malignancies. Since then various techniques have been developed, all aiming at better clinical results in conjunction with less post-irradiation complications. In this article every available technique is presented in addition to physical parameters of technique establishment and common dose fractionation. This study also revealed the preference of the majority of institutes the last 20 years in "six dual field technique" at a high dose rate, which is a safe and effective treatment.

Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma of the uterine cervix

INTRODUCTION: Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) of the uterine cervix is a rare and extremely malignant entity. Generally, embryonal RMS originating in the uterine cervix is usually diagnosed in adolescence. Before the introduction of effective adjuvant chemotherapy, the prognosis of these lesions was poor. We have treated a young woman suffering from this disease using a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy (RT) with excellent results. The medical community should keep in mind that embryonal RMS of the uterine cervix, despite its malignancy and rarity, can be cured if adequate treatment is given. CASE: A case of a young woman aged 20, presenting with vaginal bleeding, is reported. The histological examination revealed embryonal RMS of uterine cervix. The patient was treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and RT. A review in the literature, which is also presented, shows that the combined treatment of embryonal RMS using surgery and multidrug chemotherapy has significantly improved survival. CONCLUSION: Patients with favourable prognostic parameters, such as localised disease without deep myometrial invasion, single polyp and embryonal histologic subtype, can effectively be treated by surgery. Patients with unfavourable prognostic parameters seem to benefit from a multimodality approach including surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy and RT (AU)

Overview of positron emission tomography chemistry: clinical and technical considerations and combination with computed tomography.

The concept of emission and transmission tomography was introduced by David Kuhl and Roy Edwards in the late 1950s. Their work later led to the design and construction of several tomographic instruments at the University of Pennsylvania. Tomographic imaging techniques were further developed by Michel Ter-Pogossian, Michael E. Phelps and others at the Washington University School of Medicine. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a nuclear medicine imaging technique which produces a 3-dimensional image or map of functional processes in the body. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide (tracer), which is introduced into the body on a biologically active molecule. Images of tracer concentration in 3-dimensional space within the body are then reconstructed by computer analysis. In modern scanners, this reconstruction is often accomplished with the aid of a CT X-ray scan performed on the patient during the same session, in the same machine. If the biologically active molecule chosen for PET is 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), an analogue of glucose, the concentrations of tracer imaged give tissue metabolic activity in terms of regional glucose uptake. Although use of this tracer results in the most common type of PET scan, other tracer molecules are used in PET to image the tissue concentration of many other types of molecules of interest. The main role of this article was to analyse the available types of radiopharmaceuticals used in PET-CT along with the principles of its clinical and technical considerations.