Patients with prostate cancer who receive systemic androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) and local treatments have a high likelihood to experience depression, anxiety and fatigue. The present study aimed to determine the effects of Frankl's group logotherapy sessions on alleviating these symptoms in individuals with moderate-to highrisk prostate cancer who were receiving pelvic radiotherapy. A quasi-experimental study with pretest-post-test was conducted in which 30 patients were assigned either to the experimental (n = 15) or to the control (n = 15) group. The implicated research instruments were as follows: Beck's Depression Inventory, Beck's Anxiety Inventory, Okayama et al.'s Cancer Fatigue Scale and Luthans' Psychological Capital Questionnaire. The results of the ANCOVA showed that logotherapy significantly affected anxiety (F = 42.51, p < 0.001), depression (F = 39.36, p < 0.001), cancer fatigue (F = 16.54, p < 0.001) and psychological capital (F = 39.86, p < 0.001) in the experimental group compared to the control group, indicating that logotherapy sessions with an emphasis on meanings, aims and values of life, when accompanied by peer interaction, can improve mood and function as well as contributing to positive psychological capital in intermediate and high-risk prostate cancer patients during their treatments.
Delivering radiotherapy to the postmastectomy chest wall can be achieved using matched electron fields. Surgical defects of the chest wall change the dose distribution of electrons. In this study, the improvement of dose homogeneity using simple, nonconformal techniques of thermoplastic bolus application on a defect is evaluated. The proposed phantom design improves the capability of film dosimetry for obtaining dose profiles of a patient's anatomical condition. A modeled electron field of a patient with a postmastectomy inward surgical defect was planned. High energy electrons were delivered to the phantom in various settings, including no bolus, a bolus that filled the inward defect (PB0), a uniform thickness bolus of 5 mm (PB1), and two 5 mm boluses (PB2). A reduction of mean doses at the base of the defect was observed by any bolus application. PB0 increased the dose at central parts of the defect, reduced hot areas at the base of steep edges, and reduced dose to the lung and heart. Thermoplastic boluses that compensate a defect (PB0) increased the homogeneity of dose in a fixed depth from the surface; adversely, PB2 increased the dose heterogeneity. This study shows that it is practical to investigate dose homogeneity profiles inside a target volume for various techniques of electron therapy.
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