ASTRO Journals

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Editor-in-Chief Dr. Sue Yom hosts a discussion this month on the status of radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) in radiation oncology. Guests include Dr. Jeff Michalski, President of ASTRO and Carlos Perez Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University in St. Louis, and supervising author of an editorial we are publishing this month, "Radiation Oncology and Radiopharmaceuticals: Making our own history while learning from the past – An editorial response." We also host Dr. Paul Wallner, Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs at GenesisCare USA and first author of another editorial this month, "Radiation Oncologists and Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals: Will History Repeat Itself?" We’ve also invited Dr. Thomas Boike, the US Chief Medical Officer for Theranostics for GenesisCare, to discuss with us the real-world experience of bringing RPT into radiation oncology practices.

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Editor-in-Chief, Robert Amdur, MD, discusses two Morbidity and Mortality Conference papers from the March issue of PRO: "Regional Recurrence after Carotid Sparing IMRT for Early Stage Glottic Cancer" (2023 Issue 2, PMID 36089251) and "Pneumothorax Associated with Deep Inspiration Breath Holding During Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer" (2023 Issue 2, PMID 36494031). Both these papers describe unanticipated negative consequences associated with innovative treatment techniques. It is never possible to be absolutely sure of a cause-and-effect relationship in a given situation, but these reports remind us that innovation often comes with risks that are not fully appreciated when they are initially evaluated.

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Dr. Sue Yom, our Editor-in-Chief, hosts Dr. Meredith Giuliani, Thoracic Section Editor, Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology, and Associate Dean of Postgraduate Medical Education at the University of Toronto, practicing at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center; Dr. Sung-Ja Ahn, Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology of Chonnam National University Medical School and corresponding author for our new publication this month, "Randomized, Multicenter, Phase 3 Study of Accelerated Fraction Radiation Therapy With Concomitant Boost to the Gross Tumor Volume Compared With Conventional Fractionation in Concurrent Chemoradiation in Patients With Unresectable Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: The Korean Radiation Oncology Group 09-03 Trial"; and Dr. Megan Daly, Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California Davis, Associate Section Editor at our Journal, and supervising author of an article publishing next month, "Four-Dimensional Computed Tomography Ventilation Image Guided Lung Functional Avoidance Radiation Therapy: A Single-Arm Prospective Pilot Clinical Trial". We also discuss another trial published this month, "STereotactic Ablative RadioTherapy in NEWly Diagnosed and Recurrent Locally Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Unfit for ConcurrEnt RAdio-Chemotherapy: Early Analysis of the START-NEW-ERA Non-Randomised Phase II Trial".

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Editor-in-Chief, Robert Amdur, MD, discusses radiation and chemotherapy programs to use prior to surgical resection of rectal cancer. The main reference for the podcast is a Topic Discussion paper published in the January 2023 issue of PRO titled "Neoadjuvant therapy in the post-German rectal trial era: making sense in the absence of consensus" (2023, Issue 1, January/February). The discussion explains the concepts driving the evolution of neoadjuvant therapy, recommended radiotherapy and chemotherapy programs, and situations where it is acceptable to observe without surgery.

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Practical Radiation Oncology associate section editor Jeffrey Brower, MD, PhD, hosts a conversation on the ASTRO clinical practice guideline for radiation therapy in Endometrial Cancer. Two of the guideline authors, Matthew Harkenrider, MD, and Paola Gehrig, MD, discuss the development of the updated guidelines and review specific questions related to the management of patients with endometrial cancer.

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Editor-in-Chief Dr. Sue Yom discusses electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) with Dr. Kaitlyn Lapen, a radiation oncology resident at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who was first author of an article describing ePRO implementation in a November 2021 article, "Development and Pilot Implementation of a Remote Monitoring System for Acute Toxicity Using Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes for Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy for Breast Cancer"; and Dr. Patricia Holch, Reader in Applied Health Psychology from Leeds Beckett University and Dr. Galina Velikova, Professor of Psychosocial and Medical Oncology from Leeds University and the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, who first- and last-authored an article this month describing a randomized study of ePROs versus usual care among patients receiving pelvic radiotherapy, entitled "Online Symptom Monitoring During Pelvic Radiation Therapy: Randomized Pilot Trial of the eRAPID Intervention". We review major findings from these two publications and anticipated future developments in ePROs.

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Editor-in-Chief, Robert Amdur, MD, discusses primary radiotherapy for early-stage Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma of Early Stage and Indolent Histology. The discussion begins with an explanation of lymphoma classification and then reviews two papers published in PRO:"Prognostic Effect of Systemic Therapy and Radiation Therapy in Stage I Nodal Marginal Zone Lymphoma" (2023, Issue 1, January/February) and "Underutilization of Radiation Therapy in Early-stage Marginal Zone Lymphoma Negatively Impacts Overall Survival" (2016, Issue 4, July/August).

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Dr. Sue Yom, Editor in Chief, hosts Dr. Horatio "Tio" Thomas, who is completing radiation oncology residency at UCSF and is first author of an article describing an ACGME-led reform process in our January issue, "Milestones 2.0: Refining the Competency-Based Assessment of Radiation Oncology Medical Residents"; Dr. Neha Vapiwala, Professor and Vice Chair of Education in Radiation Oncology and Dean of Admissions at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, who first-authored an article this month related to accreditation changes at the ACGME, entitled "The ACGME’s Recent Changes to Radiation Oncology Training Program Standards: Raising the Bar for Postgraduate Training Quality to Better Reflect Our Specialty and Better Serve Our Patients"; Dr. Anna Lee, Assistant Professor from the Department of Radiation Oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, who first authored an article this month called, "Characteristics of the ARRO Educator of the Year Award Recipients"; and Dr. Emma Fields, Associate Professor and Residency Program Director of Radiation Oncology at Virginia Commonwealth University, who co-authored an editorial this month detailing principles of "The ASTRO Workforce Statement, on behalf of the ASTRO workforce subcommittee and also acted as the coordinating author on the ACGME milestones project along with Dr. Thomas.

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The James Cancer Hospital and Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center FLASH research team review ultra-high dose rate radiation delivery and measurement and share insight from developing a FLASH research program. Advances in Radiation Oncology associate section editor, Ashley Cetnar, PhD, leads a discussion with Arnab Chakravarti, MD, Nilendu Gupta, PhD, Ahmet Ayan, PhD, and Jessica Fleming PhD.

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Editor-in-Chief, Robert Amdur, MD, discussed two papers that were selected for review in the PROshot literature curation article published in the November/December 2022 issue of PRO. The title of the PROshot article is "PROshot: Borderline Resectable Pancreas SBRT, Surrogate Endpoints, Axillary Dissection, Genomic Classifiers, and Spine SBRT." The two articles discussed in this podcast are: "Efficacy of Preoperative mFOLFIRINOX vs mFOLFIRINOX Plus Hypofractionated Radiotherapy for Borderline Resectable Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas: The A021501 Phase 2 Randomized Clinical Trial" and "Mature Local Control and Reirradiation Rates Comparing Spine Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy with Conventional Palliative External Beam Radiation Therapy."