Patrick Clemens

Academic Teaching Hospital Feldkirch, Austria · Department of Radio-Oncology

Background: Malnutrition and skeletal muscle waste (sarcopenia) are known as predictive factors for a poor postoperative outcome. Paradoxically, obesity seems to be associated with a survival advantage in wasting diseases such as cancer. Thus, the interpretation of body composition indices and their impact on rectal cancer therapy has become more a...

Purpose In oncology settings, music, especially music therapy (MT), is frequently used to improve patients’ quality of life, pain situation, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and comfort. However, to date, there are no prospectively collected data correlating regular standardized MT sessions during radiotherapy (RT) to physical parameters such as heart...

Purpose: Sexual function is crucial for the quality of life and can be highly affected by preoperative therapy and surgery. The aim of this study was to identify potential risk factors for poor sexual function and quality of life. Methods: Female patients were asked to complete the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI-6). Male patients were demand...

To reduce the workload in PSQA, a software was developed, which on the one hand performs the secondary MU calculation and 3 D dose comparison, and on the other hand evaluates the data of the linear accelerator (log files) fully automatically

The aim of the work is to develop a fast, practical quality control method of the gamma spectrometer. Therefore, a recently developed framework by Fearn et al. (2022) was analysed and applied on the clinical setting at the academic teaching hospital in Feldkirch, Austria

Objective Patient-specific quality assurance (PSQA) of intensity modulated radio therapy (IMRT) or volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) needs to find the balance between sensitivity and practicality. Because of the large number of errors that can occur in the planning process, a reasonably low action level is required to find the majority of rel...

Purpose: Anastomotic leakage (AL) poses the most serious problem following low anterior resection in patients with rectal cancer independent of surgical approach or technique. The aim of this study was to evaluate risk factors for the occurrence of AL and how they affect the oncological long-term outcome of patients who received neoadjuvant therap...

Abstract Background In radiation treatment of locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC), ‘margins’ from internal target volumes to planning target volumes in the range of 12 to 23 mm are reported, and avoiding exposure of the contralateral lung is common practice. We investigated prospectively an approach with tight margins (7 mm) and...

Background: Robotic surgery represents a novel approach for the treatment of colorectal cancers and has been established as an important and effective method over the last years. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of a robotic program on oncological findings compared to conventional laparoscopic surgery within the first three years af...

Purpose Umbilical midline incisions for single incision- or reduced port laparoscopic surgery are still discussed controversially because of a higher rate of incisional hernia compared to conventional laparoscopic techniques. The aim of this study was to evaluate incidence and risk factors for incisional hernia after reduced port colorectal surgery...

Background: There is a rapidly growing literature available on right hemicolectomy comparing the short- and long-term outcomes of robotic right colectomy (RRC) to that of laparoscopic right colectomy (LRC). The aim of this meta-analysis is to revise current comparative literature systematically. Methods: A systematic review of comparative studie...

Purpose We conducted a patterns-of-care survey on chemoradiation for locoregionally confined anal cancer in Austria to evaluate areas of disagreement and to identify possible targets for further standardization. Methods An anonymous questionnaire comprising 38 questions was sent to all Austrian radiation oncology departments. Results were analyzed...

Purpose/Objective(s) The general indication for chemoradiation in locally confined anal cancer is widely accepted but international consensus for staging procedures, radiation technique, dose/fractionation, target volume definition, supportive care, follow-up and treatment of early lesions is less uniform. We conducted a nationwide patterns-of-care...

Fragestellung: Die Berechnung von Patientenplänen in der Strahlentherapie stellt aufgrund von anatomischen Dichteunterschieden hohe Anforderungen an den Berechnungsalgorithmus. Komplexe Algorithmen werden oft nur oberflächlich mittels MU-Kontrolle überprüft, doch in dieser Arbeit wurde eine sekundäre Dosiskontrolle mit einem Goldstandard Monte Carl...

Purpose: In this study 4 Hz log files were evaluated with an independent secondary Monte Carlo dose calculation algorithm to reduce the workload for patient-specific quality assurance (QA) in clinical routine. Materials and methods: A total of 30 randomly selected clinical prostate VMAT plans were included. The used treatment planning system (TPS)...

Purpose: Integrating log file analysis with LINACWatch® (LW) into clinical routine as part of the quality assurance (QA) process could be a time‐saving strategy that does not compromise on quality. The purpose is to determine the error sensitivity of log file analysis using LINACWatch® compared with a measurement device (ArcCHECK®, AC) for VMAT del...

Einleitung: Die Ernährungssituation bei Patienten mit Kopf-Hals Plattenepithelkarzinomen ist bereits bei Diagnosestellung größtenteils unbefriedigend. Hinzu kommt durch die primär kurative Radio-Chemotherapie und deren Nebenwirkungen eine weitere Reduktion der Nahrungsaufnahme. Wie verändert sich der Ernährungsstatus unter der Therapie und was für...

Background: Concomitant radiation with BRAF inhibitor (BRAFi) therapy may increase radiation-induced side effects but also potentially improve tumour control in melanoma patients. Methods: A total of 155 patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma from 17 European skin cancer centres were retrospectively analysed. Out of these, 87 patients received concom...

Einleitung: Ganzhirnbestrahlung ist die meist angewandte Bestrahlungstechnik bei Patienten mit multiplen Metastasen (Sundsrtom 1998). Nach einer Ganzschädelbestrahlung zeigen sich eine Verschlechterung der kognitiven Funktion sowie eine Reduktion der Lebensqualität der bestrahlten Patienten (Pospisil 2017). Auch Li et al. (2008) zeigte, dass neurok...

Einleitung: Der Stellenwert der Strahlentherapie speziell in der Situation einer R1- Resektion wird diskutiert. Aus diesem Grund stellte sich für uns die Frage ob eine lokale Strahlentherapie nach R1-Resektion zu einer verbesserten lokalen Kontrolle führen kann und ob sich eine lokale Kontrolle in einem verbesserten Überleben niederschlägt. Method...

Recent evidence suggests that ionizing radiation may be associated with unexpected side effects in melanoma patients treated with concomitant BRAF inhibitors. A large multi-center analysis was performed to generate reliable safety data and elucidate the mechanism. A total of 161 melanoma patients from eleven European skin cancer centers were evalua...

Introduction The aim of this study was to evaluate whether linac time for patient treatment is a factor for plan quality. The strongest argument for VMAT seems to be the decrease of treatment time. Where are the limits for the reduction of treatment time while maintaining a good plan quality? Materials and Methods 1 H&N case was used to compare PTV...