Purpose To evaluate the intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) quality assurance (QA) results of the multichannel film dosimetry analysis with single scan method by using Gafchromic™ EBT3 (Ashland ...Inc., Covington, KY, USA) film under 0.35 T magnetic field. Methods Between September 2018 and June 2019, 70 patients were treated with ViewRay MRIdian
(ViewRay Inc., Mountain View, CA) linear accelerator (Linac). Film dosimetry QA plans were generated for all IMRT treatments. Multichannel film dosimetry for red, green and blue (RGB) channels were compared with treatment planning system (TPS) dose maps by gamma evaluation analysis. Results The mean gamma passing rates of RGB channels are 97.3% ± 2.26%, 96.0% ± 3.27% and 96.2% ± 3.14% for gamma evaluation with 2% DD/2 mm distance to agreement (DTA), respectively. Moreover, the mean gamma passing rates of RGB channels are 99.7% ± 0.41%, 99.6% ± 0.59% and 99.5% ± 0.67% for gamma evaluation with 3% DD/3 mm DTA, respectively. Conclusion The patient specific QA using Gafchromic™ EBT3 film with multichannel film dosimetry seems to be a suitable tool to implement for MR-guided IMRT treatments under 0.35 T magnetic field. Multichannel film dosimetry with Gafchromic™ EBT3 is a consistent QA tool for gamma evaluation of the treatment plans even with 2% DD/2 mm DTA under 0.35 T magnetic field presence.
Randomized data show a survival benefit of stereotactic ablative body radiation therapy in selected patients with oligometastases (OM). Stereotactic magnetic resonance guided adaptive radiation ...therapy (SMART) may facilitate the delivery of ablative dose for OM lesions, especially those adjacent to historically dose-limiting organs at risk, where conventional approaches preclude ablative dosing.
The RSSearch Registry was queried for OM patients (1-5 metastatic lesions) treated with SMART. Freedom from local progression (FFLP), freedom from distant progression (FFDP), progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (LS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. FFLP was evaluated using RECIST 1.1 criteria. Toxicity was evaluated using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events version 4 criteria.
Ninety-six patients with 108 OM lesions were treated on a 0.35 T MR Linac at 2 institutions between 2018 and 2020. SMART was delivered to mostly abdominal or pelvic lymph nodes (48.1%), lung (18.5%), liver and intrahepatic bile ducts (16.7%), and adrenal gland (11.1%). The median prescribed radiation therapy dose was 48.5 Gy (range, 30-60 Gy) in 5 fractions (range, 3-15). The median biologically effective dose corrected using an alpha/beta value of 10 was 100 Gy10 (range, 48-180). No acute or late grade 3+ toxicities were observed with median 10 months (range, 3-25) follow-up. Estimated 1-year FFLP, FFDP, PFS, and OS were 92.3%, 41.1%, 39.3%, and 89.6%, respectively. Median FFDP and PFS were 8.9 months (95% confidence interval, 5.2-12.6 months) and 7.6 months (95% confidence interval, 4.5-10.6 months), respectively.
To our knowledge, this represents the largest analysis of SMART using ablative dosing for non-bone OM. A median prescribed biologically effective dose of 100 Gy10 resulted in excellent early FFLP and no significant toxicity, likely facilitated by continuous intrafraction MR visualization, breath hold delivery, and online adaptive replanning. Additional prospective evaluation of dose-escalated SMART for OM is warranted.
Purpose: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and melanoma have been considered 'radioresistant' due to the fact that they do not respond to conventionally fractionated radiation therapy. Stereotactic ...radiosurgery (SRS) provides high-dose radiation to a defined target volume and a limited number of studies have suggested the potential effectiveness of SRS in radioresistant histologies. We sought to determine the effectiveness of SRS for the treatment of patients with radioresistant brain metastases. Materials and Methods: We performed a retrospective review of our institutional database to identify patients with RCC or melanoma brain metastases treated with SRS. Treatment response were determined in accordance with the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors. Results: We identified 53 radioresistant brain metastases (28% RCC and 72% melanoma) treated in 18 patients. The mean target volume and coverage was 6.2 ± 9.5 mL and 95.5% ± 2.9%, respectively. The mean prescription dose was 20 ± 4.9 Gy. Forty lesions (75%) demonstrated a complete/partial response and 13 lesions (24%) with progressive/stable disease. Smaller target volume (p < 0.001), larger SRS dose (p < 0.001), and coverage (p = 0.008) were found to be positive predictors of complete response to SRS. Conclusion: SRS is an effective management option with up to 75% response rate for radioresistant brain metastases. Tumor volume and radiation dose are predictors of response and can be used to guide the decision-making for patients with radioresistant brain metastases.
Brain metastases are commonly seen complications in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The incidence of brain metastases is increasing as a result of more effective systemic targeted ...therapies with prolonged survival. The prognosis is usually poor, and up to six months of median survivals were reported with different therapeutic options. Here, we present an NSCLC case with multiple brain metastases treated with radiosurgery and systemic erlotinib therapy with prolonged survival. The use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) in conjunction with either stereotactic radiosurgery or whole brain radiotherapy is not well established in terms of efficiency and toxicity. This reported case had an excellent response with a tolerable toxicity profile from the combination of either therapies.
The use of patient symptom reports with frequent symptom assessment may be preferred over the more commonly used health-related quality of life questionnaires.
We sought to linguistically validate ...the Turkish version of the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory-Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN) patient reported outcome questionnaire.
Validation study.
Following standard forward and backward translation of the original and previously validated English MDASI-HN into a Turkish version (T-MDASI-HN), it was administered to patients with head and neck cancer able to read and understand Turkish. Patients were then cognitively debriefed to evaluate their understanding and comprehension of the T-MDASI-HN. Individual and group responses are presented using descriptive statistics.
Twenty-six participants with head and neck cancer completed the T-MDASIHN and accompanying cognitive debriefing. Overall, 97 percent of the individual TMDASI-HN items were completed. Average recorded time to complete the 28 item TMDASI-HN questionnaire was 5.4 minutes (range 2-10). Average overall ease of completion, understandability, and acceptability were favorably rated at 1.0, 1.1, and 0.2, respectively, on scales from 0 to 10. Only 5 of the 26 of participants reported trouble completing any single questionnaire items, namely the "difficulty remembering" item for 3 individuals.
The T-MDASI-HN is linguistically valid with ease of completion, relevance, comprehensibility, and applicability and it can be a useful clinical and research tool.
The Rare Cancer Network (RCN) was formed in the early 1990's to create a global network that could pool knowledge and resources in the studies of rare malignancies whose infrequency prevented both ...their study with prospective clinical trials. To date, the RCN has initiated 74 studies resulting in 46 peer reviewed publications. The First International Symposium of the Rare Cancer Network took place in Nice in March of 2014. Status updates and proposals for new studies were heard for fifteen topics. Ongoing studies continue for cardiac sarcomas, thyroid cancers, glomus tumors, and adult medulloblastomas. New proposals were presented at the symposium for primary hepatic lymphoma, solitary fibrous tumors, Rosai-Dorfman disease, tumors of the ampulla of Vater, salivary gland tumors, anorectal melanoma, midline nuclear protein in testes carcinoma, pulmonary lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma of the trachea, osteosarcomas of the mandible, and extra-cranial hemangiopericytoma. This manuscript presents the abstracts of those proposals and updates on ongoing studies, as well a brief summary of the vision and future of the RCN.
The study aimed to assess if adherence to a total-neoadjuvant-treatment (TNT) protocol followed by observation(watch-and-wait) led to the successful nonoperative-management of low-rectal-cancer.
In ...this study, patients with primary, resectable-T3-T4, N0–N1 distal-rectal-adenocarcinoma underwent-chemoradiotherapy + consolidation-chemotherapy (TNT). During the-TNT-period, endoscopy, MRI, and FDG-PET/CT were performed. We allocated patients with complete-clinical-tumor-regression, who underwent endoscopy every two months, MRI every-four-months, and PET/CT every-six-months-after-treatment, to the observation-group(OG). All other patients were referred for surgery. The OG was followed-up. The primary endpoint was local tumor-ecurrence after allocation to the OG.
Between 2015 and 2018, we enrolled 66-patients. Of 60-patients who were eligible to participate, 39 had complete-clinical-response(cCR) and were allocated to the OG, six underwent local-excision (LE), and 15 underwent total-mesorectal-excision (TME). The median follow-up duration was 22 (9–42) months. The local-recurrence-rate in the OG was 15.3%, and the LE and TME rates were 16.6% and 0%, respectively. All recurrence cases were salvaged through either LE or TME. The-distant-metastasis rate was 5.1%, 16.6%, and 12.5% in the OG, LE, and TME groups, respectively. The endoscopic negative-predictive-value(NPV) was 50%, and the positive-predictive-value(PPV) was 76.9% in the surgery group (LE + TME). MRI; NPV-50%, PPV-76.9%. PET/CT; NPV-100%, PPV-93.3%. Six patients(28.57%) from surgery group achieved complete pathological response (cPR).
Our results indicated a high proportion of selected-rectal-cancers with-cCR after neo-adjuvant-therapy could potentially be managed non-operatively, and major surgery may be avoided.
To evaluate the outcomes of metastasis-directed treatment (MDT) using stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for bone-only oligometastasis (OM) detected with gallium prostate-specific membrane antigen ...(68Ga-PSMA) PET/CT in castration-sensitive prostate cancer (PC) patients.
In this multi-institutional study, clinical data of 74 PC patients with 153 bone lesions who were undergoing MDT were retrospectively evaluated. Twenty-seven patients (36.5%) had synchronous, and 47 (63.5%) had metachronous OM. All patients had PC with 5 metastases or fewer detected by 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT and treated using SBRT with a median dose of 20 Gy. The prognostic factors for PC-specific survival (PCSS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were analyzed.
The median follow-up was 27.3 months. Patients with synchronous OM were older and received higher rates of androgen deprivation therapy after SBRT compared with patients with metachronous OM. The 2-year PCSS and PFS rates were 92.0% and 72.0%, respectively. A prostate-specific antigen (PSA) decline was observed in 56 patients (75.7%), and 48 (64.9%) had a PSA response defined as at least 25% decrease of PSA after MDT. The 2-year local control rate per lesion was 95.4%. In multivariate analysis, single OM and PSA response after MDT were significant predictors for better PCSS and PFS. In-field recurrence was observed in 4 patients (6.5%) with 10 lesions at a median of 13.1 months after MDT completion. No serious late toxicity was observed.
We demonstrated that SBRT is an efficient and well-tolerated treatment option for PC patients with 5 bone-only oligometastases or fewer detected with 68Ga-PSMA PET/CT.