Daniel Taussky

• MD
• Professor (Associate) at Université de Montréal

Objectives We conducted an analysis of the prognostic implications of MRI findings prior to radiotherapy in patients diagnosed with prostate cancer. Methods Patients from our institutional database who were treated with radiotherapy between 2014-2024 were searched for diagnostic MRI. The prognostic significance of PI-RADS score, index-lesion diame...

Objectives This paper examines the life and research of Otto Warburg (1883 to 1970), who identified the so-called Warburg effect. Warburg personal life and scientific career were notable. Methods This study summarizes the key aspects of his life, the Warburg effect, and its significance in prostate cancer. Results Despite being classified as non-...

Introduction Since Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895, advancements in radiobiology have significantly shaped radiotherapy practices. This historical review traces the evolution of radiobiological theories and their impacts on current therapeutic strategies. Materials and Methods Databases such as PubMed were utilized to trace the evolution of...

Introduction Several blood markers of inflammation are elevated in prostate cancer (PCa) and have prognostic value. Little is known about the relationship between these markers, PCa, and other factors associated with chronic inflammation, such as smoking and obesity. We analyzed the interaction between neutrophil and platelet counts indexed to lymp...

Rita Levi-Montalcini (RLM) is recognized as a prestigious and renowned researcher of her time. She was the fourth woman to earn the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1986 for the discovery of nerve growth factor (NGF). We review her biography and scientific discovery, and provide an example of why her discovery is still important. She had a...

Today, the name Friedrich Dessauer is almost forgotten; however, his scientific, social, and political works should not be. Dessauer’s professional career began at a young age as a professor of physics in Frankfurt am Main. It is said that he published 400 papers and 65 book chapters and pamphlets. He was a technical inventor who established laws t...

Simple Summary There is an interaction between cancer and neural cells. This interaction was discovered as early as 1948. The first messenger of this interaction, called crosstalk, was discovered shortly after and was named the nerve growth factor (NGF). This factor influences many different organs, among them, the immune system and the nervous sys...

Androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer was pioneered by Charles Huggins, laureate of the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1966. The authors tried to understand the scientific context and how previous findings paved Huggins way to his discoveries. With the help of summary or review articles on androgen deprivation therapy, the authors identified...

Background: Despite recent awareness of institutional racism, there are still important racial disparities in prostate cancer medical research. We investigated the historical development of research on racial disparities and bias. Methods: PubMed was searched for the term ‘prostate cancer race’ and added key terms associated with racial disparity....

Background: Prostate brachytherapy (BT) techniques have evolved over the past century. This paper aimed to preserve our collective memory of history and the early development of its technique. We searched articles in PubMed and Google Scholar using keywords referring to authors, dates, and BT technical details, including different radioactive sour...

There are few randomized trials to evaluate the use of PSMA-PET in the planning of post-prostatectomy radiotherapy. There are two unresolved questions 1) should we increase the dose to lesions visible on PSMA-PET 2) can we reduce dose in the case of a negative PSMA-PET. In this review, we summarize and discuss the available evidence in the literatu...

We present a case of a patient with recurrent prostate cancer after treatment for favorable intermediate risk cancer. There was an exceptionally steep increase in PSA from <0.5 to 130ng/mL in 27 months accompanied with the development of bone metastasis. The PSA increase was unexpected. We suspect that this unusual development of metastases must ha...

Purpose: Prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) ligand positron emission tomography (PET) is increasingly integrated in prostate cancer management due to its diagnostic performance. We sought to evaluate the impact of PSMA-PET/CT-guided intensification of radiotherapy (PSMAgRT) on patient outcomes. Here, we report secondary trial endpoints incl...

Background For patients with a higher burden of localized prostate cancer, radiation dose escalation with brachytherapy boosts have improved cancer control outcomes at the cost of urinary toxicity. We hypothesize that a focal approach to brachytherapy boosts targeting only grossly visualized tumor volumes (GTV) combined with stereotactic radiothera...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.971344.].

Purpose Pre-treatment diagnostic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used in prostate cancer detection and staging; however, little is known about its potential for radiotherapy treatment decision, or its prognostic value. We investigated the findings on pre-treatment MRI and its potential influence on treatment decisions, and its ability to predic...

Objectifs L’influence des statines dans le cancer de prostate localisé (CaP) après un traitement primaire reste discuté en particulier pour les CaP de haut risque et après un traitement par radiothérapie. L’objectif était d’étudier l’impact de la prise de statines sur la récidive biologique (BCR) chez les patients traités par différents types de ra...

Purpose QTc has been associated not only with a higher risk of Torsade de Pointes (TdP), sudden cardiac arrest but also with general cardiac mortality, including cardiovascular and coronary death. We examined the prevalence of prolonged QTc interval in prostate cancer patients undergoing brachytherapy in general and in patients with more aggressive...

Purpose Dosimetry calculation for diffusing alpha emitters radiation therapy (DaRT) is challenging because it needs to combine both diffusion modelling and radiation transport computation. We have developed a 3D dosimetry platform to compare standard focal Ir-192 HDR and Ra-224 DaRT dosimetry for real prostate focal brachytherapy cases. Materials...

The neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) at baseline has been shown to have prognostic value in metastatic prostate cancer. Little is known about the importance of a change in the NLR during treatment in patients treated with Radium-223 (223Ra). We investigated the prognostic value of the NLR at baseline and during therapy in patients with metastat...

Aims There is a widespread belief that outcomes of cancer patients treated within clinical trials might not be representative of the outcomes obtained within standard clinical settings. We sought to investigate the effect of trial participation on biochemical recurrence (BCR) in localised, D'Amico intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer patient...

Background and purpose Locally recurrent prostate cancer after radiotherapy merits an effective salvage strategy that mitigates the risk of adverse events. We report outcomes of a cohort enrolled across two institutions investigating MRI-guided tumor-targeted salvage high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR-BT). Materials and methods Analysis of a prospe...

The impact of statin use on localized prostate cancer (PCa) remains controversial, especially for patients treated with radiation therapy. We assessed the impact of statin use on biochemical recurrence (BCR) in patients treated for PCa with different modalities of radiation therapy. We evaluated 3555 patients undergoing radiation therapy between Ja...

PURPOSE: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), a marker for subclinical inflammation, has been previously shown to be associated with erectile dysfunction (ED). We studied the potential predictive value of the NLR on ED after prostate brachytherapy (PB) for PCa. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Between July 2005 and January 2021, 842 patients were included i...

Introduction: To analyze biochemical failure-free survival and erectile dysfunction (ED) in younger men treated with prostate seed brachytherapy (PB). Materials and methods: Included were patients ≤ 55 years treated with PB. Erectile function at baseline and after treatment were assessed using the physician-reported CTCAE version 4.0. Biochemica...

Introduction: We aimed to investigate several clinical and biochemical parameters, including palliative external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) to predict survival in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) treated with radium-223 (223Ra). Methods: We tested known and possible prognostic parameters, including palliativ...

QTc prolongation is linked to Torsade de Pointes, sudden cardiac death, and overall cardiovascular mortality. 754 prostate cancer patients undergoing brachytherapy were analyzed, prolonged QTc was defined as ≥450ms. A prolonged QTc was more frequent (10.1% vs 5.1%, p = 0.040) in patients with high-risk cancer than in low to intermediate risk patien...

Purpose: Cardiovascular disease is a common cause of death in prostate cancer patients. Low testosterone is associated with increased cardiovascular risk in the general male population. We investigated the relationship between serum testosterone, cardiovascular disease and risk factors in androgen-deprivation therapy-naïve prostate cancer patients...

Purpose To externally validate the STAR-CAP prognostic system for prostate cancer (PCa) and compare it to the CAPRA score to predict for biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radiation therapy (RTx). Methods We included patients treated with RTx between 2002 and 2021 for non-metastatic PCa at our institution. BCR was defined based on Phoenix criteria...

Objectifs L’évaluation de la cinétique du PSA est essentielle après radiothérapie et la récidive biochimique (BCR) est définie selon les critères Phoenix. La valeur du nadir et le temps jusqu’à atteinte du nadir ont été peu évalués. L’objectif de l’étude était d’évaluer l’effet du délai jusqu’à obtention du nadir de PSA après irradiation pour cance...

Objectifs L’objectif de cette étude était d’évaluer le nouveau système de stadification pronostique (STAR-CAP), récemment publié dans une cohorte multinationale (JAMA Oncology, octobre 2020) et de le comparer au score CAPRA (Cancer of the Prostate Risk Assessment) dans ses capacités à prédire la récidive biochimique (BCR, définie selon Phoenix : Na...

Purpose: To investigate the effect of time to prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir (TTN) after radiation therapy (RTx) for prostate cancer (PCa) on biochemical recurrence (BCR) and overall survival (OS) rates. Patients and methods: We analyzed 2,506 patients treated with RTx (external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy or combinations) between ye...

PURPOSE To evaluate the PSA outcomes and the late patient's reported health related quality of life (HRQOL) and toxicity after single-fraction High-Dose-Rate brachytherapy (HDRB) and Low-Dose-Rate brachytherapy (LDRB) for prostate cancer. METHODS Men with low and favorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer across 3 centres were randomized between...

Erectile function has been shown to decline as a function of increasing peripheral blood inflammatory markers, namely the neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR). We evaluated if the association between NLR and erectile dysfunction (ED) applies to patients with localised prostate cancer. We included 1,282 patients who underwent brachytherapy. ED was c...

Purpose: The aim of this study is to identify the leaders in research on prostate brachytherapy through a bibliometric analysis of the top 100 most cited publications in the field. Methods and materials: A broad search was performed with the term "prostate brachytherapy" using the Web of Science database to generate wide-ranging results that wer...

Introduction: Across all cancer sites and stages, prostate cancer has one of the greatest median five-year survival rates, highlighting the important focus on survivorship issues following diagnosis and treatment. In the current study, we sought to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of depression in a large, multicenter, contemporary, prospect...

Purpose To report of the long-term outcome of prostate cancer patients treated with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) and prostate high-dose rate brachytherapy from a prospective multi-institutional trial conducted by xxxx. Methods and Materials Patients with clinically localized (T1c-T3b) prostate cancer without prior history of TURP or hip...

Introduction We aimed to characterize the most influential radiation oncologists on Twitter, the correlation between their Twitter activity and their academic profiles as measured by the Scopus H-index as well as their activity around the American Society for Radiation Oncologists (ASTRO) 2018 meeting. Methods We defined radiation oncology influenc...

We analyzed the influence of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) on the biochemical recurrence (BCR) in low-intermediate risk prostate cancer (PCa). A total of 604 patients treated with exclusive brachytherapy for low- and intermediate-risk cancers were included in this study. No patient received either androge...

Introduction: We aimed to investigate whether patients on active surveillance (AS) had worse outcomes than patients who received immediate treatment with radiotherapy and whether a Gleason grade progression on repeat biopsy influenced outcome. Methods: From our institutional database, we identified 2001 patients treated between 2005 and 2019 wit...

We investigated whether there is an association between testosterone levels and prostate cancer aggressiveness in patients treated with radiation therapy who underwent a prostatectomy or prostate radiotherapy (EBRT). A total of 380 patients who received primary or post‐operative radiotherapy were identified. At the time of radiotherapy, baseline te...

Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the correlation between Twitter mentions and the number of academic citations of radiation oncology articles. Materials and methods: We reviewed all 178 clinical manuscripts of the 2 most important radiation oncology journals and "Brachytherapy," and all clinical manuscripts relating to radia...

Purpose: We analyzed the rate of preserved potency after prostate brachytherapy (PB) with radioactive seeds and the impact of patient comorbidities on post-PB erectile dysfunction (ED). Methods: We included 627 patients who were assessed for pre- and postimplant potency between 2005 and 2017. Assessment was based on the Common Terminology Criter...

Purpose The progress of women in academic medicine appears to be curtailed. We evaluated gender differences in academia for residents in radiation oncology compared with 2 of its related specialties, radiology and medical oncology, across Canada. Methods and Materials We analyzed abstracts presented between 2013 and 2016 at the annual meetings of...

Introduction: We aimed to investigate the effect of radiotherapy (RT) in contemporary patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) compared to RP alone for non-metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) on the incidence of second primary cancers (SPCs). Methods: Within the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (2004-2015), we identified...

Background Intraductal carcinoma of the prostate (IDC-P) is an independent biomarker of recurrence and survival with particular treatment response, yet no study has tested its response to radiotherapy. The aim of our project was to test the impact of adjuvant radiotherapy (ART) in patients with localized to locally advanced prostate cancer (PC) and...

Purpose: To compare health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of high-dose-rate brachytherapy (HDRB) versus low dose-rate brachytherapy (LDRB) for localized prostate cancer in a multi-institutional phase 2 randomized trial. Methods and materials: Men with favorable-risk prostate cancer were randomized between monotherapy brachytherapy with either I...

Background We investigated whether visceral adiposity is associated with more aggressive disease at prostatectomy. Materials and methods Four hundred and seventy-four patients referred for postoperative adjuvant or salvage radiotherapy were included in this study. Primary endpoints were positive surgical margins (pSM) or extracapsular extension (E...

Introduction: Conflicting data exists on the influence of metformin on prostate cancer. We investigated the importance of metformin in patients treated with radiotherapy or brachytherapy. Materials and methods: All patients from a large institutionalized database, treated for primary localized prostate cancer with either brachytherapy or externa...

Purpose: A prostate-specific antigen (PSA) nadir <0.2 ng/mL is generally considered as tissue ablative and at low risk for recurrence. After attaining such a low PSA nadir, we analyzed risk factors for recurrence. Methods and materials: We identified patients from our institutionalized database with either D'Amico low- or intermediate-risk prost...

Purpose To compare the impact of the fusion of intraoperative transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) images with day 30 computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on prostate volume and dosimetry. Methods and materials Seventy-five consecutive patients with CT and MRI obtained on day 30 with a Fast Spin Echo T2-weighted magnetic resonance...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare early prostate-specific antigen (PSA) decline patterns and PSA nadirs between low-dose-rate seed prostate brachytherapy (LDR-PB) and different fractionations of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) and their predictive importance for biochemical failure (bF). Methods and materials: Patients with D'Amico...

Objective: To investigate the impact of 5‑alpha-reductase inhibitor (5-ARI) use on radiotherapy outcomes for localized prostate cancer. Patients and methods: We included 203 patients on a 5-ARI from our institutional database comprising over 2500 patients who had been treated with either external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) or brachytherapy for loc...

Introduction: We sought to determine the impact of salvage radiotherapy (SRT) on oncological and functional outcomes of patients with prostate cancer after biochemical recurrence (BCR) following robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP). Methods: Data of 70 patients with prostate cancer treated with SRT after developing BCR were retrospectivel...

Purpose: To evaluate the risk of second malignancies after migration of seeds (MS) in prostate cancer patients treated with I-125 loose seeds brachytherapy. Materials and methods: Data from 2802 prostate cancer patients treated with I-125 loose seeds brachytherapy in three Canadian centres were reviewed. After seeds implant, all patients underwent...

Purpose To analyze intraoperative (IO) dosimetry using transrectal ultrasound (TRUS), performed before and after prostate low-dose-rate brachytherapy (LDR-BT), and compare it to dosimetry performed 30 days following the LDR-BT implant (Day 30). Material and methods A total of 236 patients underwent prostate LDR-BT using ¹²⁵I that was performed wit...

Background: It has been shown that neutrophil count or an elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as well as testosterone levels are separately associated with increased mortality in patients with localized prostate cancer. Objective: We tested a combination of testosterone levels and white blood cell (WBC) counts to predict overall surviv...

18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/ computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) is a widely used diagnostic tool for whole-body imaging, and incidental prostatic uptake occurs in approximately 1% of patients undergoing the exam. Is 18F-FDG PET/CT a reliable screening tool for prostate cancer? Should these patients undergo transrectal ultr...