Author: Randy Wei

ASTRO membership survey on palliative and supportive care

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Just published in PRO!  Members of SPRO and ASTRO have completed a national membership survey of radiation oncologists on Palliative and Supportive Care in the United States. Attitudes of Radiation Oncologists Toward Palliative and Supportive Care in the United States: Report on National Membership Survey by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Randy L. Wei, MD, PhD, Malcolm D. Mattes, MD, James Yu, MD, Adrienne Thrasher, Hui-kuo Shu, MD, Harald Paganetti, PhD,Jennifer De Los Santos, MD, Bridget Koontz, MD, Christopher Abraham, MD, Tracy Balboni, M Background/Purpose Radiation oncologists are frequently involved in providing palliative and supportive care (PSC) for patients with advanced…

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Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) National Palliative Radiotherapy Taskforce Update

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The Veterans Healthcare Administration (VHA) National Palliative Radiotherapy Taskforce formed in 2012 with the aim of researching and advancing palliative care within the VHA. The taskforce has since expanded and made meaningful progress. Through a series of survey studies, the group has measured practice patterns across the 39 (soon to be 40) VHA facilities that provide radiation therapy to Veterans with cancer at the end of life. Efforts have focused on evaluating prescriptions that are preferred for the palliation of bone metastases, spinal cord compression, and brain metastases. Studies have also evaluated the availability of palliative care services and advanced…

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SPRO Annual Meeting 2015 at ASTRO in San Antonio

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On October 18, the Society for Palliative Radiation Oncology (SPRO) held its annual meeting in San Antonio, TX, in conjunction with the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) annual meeting. Dr. Stephen Lutz welcomed everyone to the meeting and reviewed the initiatives that have been undertaken since SPRO was formally introduced one year before. He then introduced speakers in three categories: Research, Education, and Advocacy. For clinical research, Dr. Chad Tang from MD Anderson presented the Prognostic Index for Spine Metastases (PRISM), a measure that aims to categorize patients with excellent or poor prognosis following stereotactic spine radiosurgery and to…

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Palliative Radiation Therapy: Utilization of Advanced Technologies

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    Palliative Radiation Therapy: Utilization of Advanced Technologies.  Both volumes should be published in Q3 2015 and the links to volume 1 and volume 2 are here: https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=53929&osCsid=66dbd9fbf4c4a6c8fe3e843773398f05 https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=53930&osCsid=66dbd9fbf4c4a6c8fe3e843773398f05

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