oronavirus (COVID-19) has caused marked impact on graduate medical education for all medical specialties. Radiation Oncology and the American Board of Radiology have also had to rapidly adapt to converting education and examinations to virtual platforms. We describe our small pilot experience in transitioning our in-person mock oral examinations to a virtual platform. Survey-based assessment revealed excellent feedback regarding ease of use and educational usefulness. Our mock oral examinations pilot experience adds to evidence that virtual mock oral examinations are an important considerationfor Radiation Oncology education and a feasible alternative to an in-person oral examination.
The teaching efficacy of multipoint VTC is perceived by medical residents to be more effective when complemented by application-sharing software such as Adobe Acrobat Connect.
IntroductionLung stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is a first-line treatment for early-stage lung cancer in nonsurgical candidates or those who refuse surgery. We compared our institutional outcomes from a unique patient population with decreased barriers to care with a recently published prospective series.
Materials and methodsWe retrospectively reviewed all patients who received definitive lung SBRT at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center from 2015 to 2020. All patients underwent a positron emission tomographycomputed tomography (PET-CT) and all were presented at a multidisciplinary tumor board. Patients were treated on a Trubeam linear accelerator (LINAC)-based system with daily cone-beam CT. The results were qualitatively compared to outcomes from prospective studies including RTOG 0236 and RTOG 0618.
ResultsA total of 105 patients with 114 lesions were included. Median age was 77 years and 54.7% had ≥ 40-pack year smoking history. 36.8% did not have pathologic confirmation. With a median follow-up of 24 months, three-year local control (LC), disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 92.4%, 81.0%, and 80.0%, respectively. Rates of Grade 1 and 2 toxicity were 21.9% and 6.7% and no patients experienced Grade ≥ 3 toxicity.
ConclusionsIn our military setting with universal coverage and routine multidisciplinary care, lung SBRT provides outcomes comparable to prospective studies conducted at high-volume academic centers. More than onethird of patients were treated empirically without pathologic confirmation of disease, demonstrating a difference between clinical trials and community practice. Further investigation is warranted to integrate multidisciplinary management and achieve equal access to care to bridge existing health disparities in the community setting.
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