Escalation of dose to tumor while sparing adjacent critical structures is a hypothesis being tested by major radiotherapy centers, most notably for prostate cancer through an NCI funded cooperative trial and several program projects. Conformal therapy may also be effective in oral cancers, if technical hurdles can be overcome. The goal of this pilot study is to develop and evaluate technologies which may improve oral cancer treatment with external beam conformal radiation therapy. Specifically, we that three technologies are critical to the effective implementation of conformal therapy for oral cancers: a) the radiation oncologist must have tools to clearly visualize anatomy, including nodes, vessels and other structures not normally segmented during the treatment planning process b) once the complete three dimensional target and normal tissues are defined, a desired dose distribution is specified. A method is needed to calculate the intensity profiles of beams to be used. Summation of these intensity profiles from the multiple beams results in a composite dose distribution which should closely approximate the desired dose distribution. This process is referred to as inverse planning. Commercial software and delivery systems are now available to deliver such intensity modulated fields, although FDA approval in some cases is still pending. Finally, the patient must be accurately repositioned from day to day for fractionated radiotherapy. It appears that in addition to electronic portal imaging devices, which provide signals on internal anatomy relative to isocenter, that video may also be very helpful in interactively repositioning patients. The goal of this pilot project is to provide feasible clinical solutions to these technical challenges, such that oral cancer treatment with external beam radiation can be improved.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Dental & Craniofacial Research (NIDCR)
Type
Specialized Center (P50)
Project #
1P50DE011921-01
Application #
5210300
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1996
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Cohen, Ezra E W; Rosner, Marsha Rich (2009) MicroRNA-regulated feed forward loop network. Cell Cycle 8:2477-8
Cohen, Ezra E W; Zhu, Hongyan; Lingen, Mark W et al. (2009) A feed-forward loop involving protein kinase Calpha and microRNAs regulates tumor cell cycle. Cancer Res 69:65-74
Logemann, Jeri A; Pauloski, Barbara Roa; Rademaker, Alfred W et al. (2008) Swallowing disorders in the first year after radiation and chemoradiation. Head Neck 30:148-58
Huang, R Stephanie; Duan, Shiwei; Kistner, Emily O et al. (2008) Genetic variants contributing to daunorubicin-induced cytotoxicity. Cancer Res 68:3161-8
Zhang, Wei; Duan, Shiwei; Kistner, Emily O et al. (2008) Evaluation of genetic variation contributing to differences in gene expression between populations. Am J Hum Genet 82:631-40
Shukla, Sunita J; Duan, Shiwei; Badner, Judith A et al. (2008) Susceptibility loci involved in cisplatin-induced cytotoxicity and apoptosis. Pharmacogenet Genomics 18:253-62
Logemann, Jeri A; Rademaker, Alfred W; Pauloski, Barbara Roa et al. (2006) Site of disease and treatment protocol as correlates of swallowing function in patients with head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiation. Head Neck 28:64-73
Cohen, Ezra Eddy Wyssam; Lingen, Mark W; Zhu, Bangmin et al. (2006) Protein kinase C zeta mediates epidermal growth factor-induced growth of head and neck tumor cells by regulating mitogen-activated protein kinase. Cancer Res 66:6296-303
Milano, Michael T; Vokes, Everett E; Kao, Johnny et al. (2006) Intensity-modulated radiation therapy in advanced head and neck patients treated with intensive chemoradiotherapy: preliminary experience and future directions. Int J Oncol 28:1141-51
Pasche, Boris; Knobloch, Thomas J; Bian, Yansong et al. (2005) Somatic acquisition and signaling of TGFBR1*6A in cancer. JAMA 294:1634-46

Showing the most recent 10 out of 54 publications