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Combining engineering, computer, and photographic techniques with historical sources, this research note discusses the gas chambers attached to crematoriums at Auschwitz I and the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Among other things, the authors identify the locations of several of the holes in the roofs through which Zykion B was introduced: five in Crematorium I and three of the four in the badly damaged Crematorium II. The authors began their project before David Irving's libel suit against Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt, proceeding simultaneously with, but independently of, the trial. The defense presented the first version of the authors' report during Irving's subsequent application to appeal. Irving's application was rejected by the court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess the planning, treatment, and follow-up strategies worldwide in dedicated proton therapy ocular programs.Methods and Materials: Ten centers from 7 countries completed a questionnaire survey with 109 queries on the eye treatment planning system (TPS), hardware/software equipment, image acquisition/registration, patient positioning, eye surveillance, beam delivery, quality assurance (QA), clinical management, and workflow.Results: Worldwide, 28,891 eye patients were treated with protons at the 10 centers as of the end of 2014. Most centers treated a vast number of ocular patients (1729 to 6369). Three centers treated fewer than 200 ocular patients. Most commonly, the centers treated uveal melanoma (UM) and other primary ocular malignancies, benign ocular tumors, conjunctival lesions, choroidal metastases, and retinoblastomas. The UM dose fractionation was generally within a standard range, whereas dosing for other ocular conditions was not standardized. The majority (80%) of centers used in common a specific ocular TPS. Variability existed in imaging registration, with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) rarely being used in routine planning (20%). Increased patient to full-time equivalent ratios were observed by higher accruing centers (P=.0161). Generally, ophthalmologists followed up the post-radiation therapy patients, though in 40% of centers radiation oncologists also followed up the patients. Seven centers had a prospective outcomes database. All centers used a cyclotron to accelerate protons with dedicated horizontal beam lines only. QA checks (range, modulation) varied substantially across centers.Conclusions: The first worldwide multi-institutional ophthalmic proton therapy survey of the clinical and technical approach shows areas of substantial overlap and areas of progress needed to achieve sustainable and systematic management. Future international efforts include research and development for imaging and planning software upgrades, increased use of MRI, development of clinical protocols, systematic patient-centered data acquisition, and publishing guidelines on QA, staffing, treatment, and follow-up parameters by dedicated ocular programs to ensure the highest level of care for ocular patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: EPR dosimetry on bone samples was recently used for actual and suspected overexposures during radiotherapy treatments performed in Poland. In 2001 five breast-cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy in the Bialystok Oncology Center, Poland, were overexposed. The overexposure was due to a defective safety interlock and an obsolete safety system of the linear accelerator. For the three most exposed patients, pieces of rib bones removed during surgical reconstruction of the chest wall and skin transplantation allowed an estimation of the accident doses by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometry. The doses delivered during the accident were as high as 60–80Gy. In 2005, a patient treated in Kielce Holy Cross Cancer Center exhibited similar deep necroses of the chest wall but 6 years following a “standard upper mantel fields” radiotherapy for Hodgkin''s disease. In order to investigate the possible late effect of an overexposure as necrosis origin, the delivered dose was afterward estimated by EPR dosimetry performed on a rib sample. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]