Results of the phase II EORTC 22971 trial evaluating combined accelerated external radiation and chemotherapy with 5FU and cisplatin in patients with muscle invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder.

INTRODUCTION: We prospectively evaluated concomitant radiotherapy and chemotherapy for advanced bladder cancer in a phase II EORTC trial to test whether it could be further studied as a potential treatment of bladder cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients up to 75 years of age with invasive transitional-cell carcinoma of the bladder up to 5 cm, stage pT2 to pT3b, N0M0, without residual macroscopical tumour after transurethral excision were eligible. Radiotherapy consisted of 2 fractions of 1.2 Gy daily up to 60 Gy delivered in a period of 5 weeks. During the first and the last week, cisplatin 20 mg/m(2)/day and 5 FU 375 mg/m(2)/day were given concomitantly. RESULTS: The study was interrupted early due to poor recruitment. Nine patients of the originally 43 planned were treated. Mean age was 63 years. Five patients had tumour stage pT2, 1 stage pT3a and 3 stage pT3b. All patients completed radiotherapy and chemotherapy as scheduled. Only one grade 3 and no grade 4 toxicity was seen. All patients were evaluated 3 months after treatment: eight patients had no detectable tumour and one had para-aortic lymph nodes. During further follow-up, a second patient got lymph node metastases and two patients developed distant metastases (lung in the patient with enlarged lymph nodes at the first evaluation and abdominal in one other). Those three patients died at respectively 19, 14, and 18 months after registration. Late toxicity was limited and often temporary. After 26 to 57 months of follow-up, no local recurrences were seen. Six patients remained alive without disease. DISCUSSION: Despite the small cohort, this combination of concomitant chemotherapy and accelerated hyperfractionated radiotherapy for invasive bladder cancer seemed to be well tolerated and to result in satisfactory local control with limited early and late toxicity. It could therefore be considered for study in further clinical trials.

The curative role of radiotherapy in adenocarcinoma of the prostate in patients under 55 years of age: a rare cancer network retrospective study.

To determine whether radiation therapy could be an acceptable alternative to surgery in young patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate, we analysed the outcome of 39 patients aged under 55 with organ confined tumours who received external radiation therapy in a curative intent. Our results suggest that similar local control in younger and older patients can be expected from either external beam radiotherapy or radical prostatectomy.

Predictors of the risk of fibrosis at 10 years after breast conserving therapy for early breast cancer: a study based on the EORTC Trial 22881-10882 'boost versus no boost'.

The EORTC 22881-10882 trial in 5178 conservatively treated early breast cancer patients showed that a 16 Gy boost dose significantly improved local control, but increased the risk of breast fibrosis. To investigate predictors for the long-term risk of fibrosis, Cox regression models of the time to moderate or severe fibrosis were developed on a random set of 1797 patients with and 1827 patients without a boost, and validated in the remaining set. The median follow-up was 10.7 years. The risk of fibrosis significantly increased (P<0.01) with increasing maximum whole breast irradiation (WBI) dose and with concomitant chemotherapy, but was independent of age. In the boost arm, the risk further increased (P<0.01) if patients had post-operative breast oedema or haematoma, but it decreased (P<0.01) if WBI was given with >6 MV photons. The c-index was around 0.62. Nomograms with these factors are proposed to forecast the long-term risk of moderate or severe fibrosis.

[Prostate cancer diagnosed before 55: a retrospective study from the Rare Cancer Network]. / Cancers de la prostate diagnostiqués avant 55 ans: une étude rétrospective du groupe des cancers rares.

This retrospective study on a large number of cases offers a vision of the modalities of care in prostate cancer diagnosed before the age of 55, according to different policies, aiming to propose other directions for 2005. Between January 1974 and December 2001, 365 patients had a pathological diagnosis of prostate cancer occurring before the age of 55. These patients were referred to the departments of radiation therapy affiliated to the Rare Cancer Network. A questionnaire was filled in retrospectively to allow further analysis of medical and surgical data. The treatments were those recommended at the time of analysis and progressed according to new accepted standards. Clinical and pathological features of the patients were as follows: 36% of the tumours were Gleason > 7 scored, 56% of the patients had a T3-T4 and 31 had metastases at the time of diagnosis. As far as treatment was concerned, 4 groups were considered: 83 patients had a radical prostatectomy, 155 received radiation therapy with a curative intent, 87 were treated by hormonal manipulation, and the remaining 40 patients received palliative care. The free of disease survival rate at 10 years was 38% for patients without immediate metastases, only 1% of patients with metastases were alive. The multivariate analysis demonstrated the significant impact of radiotherapy on both local and distant failure rates and of T stage on distant failure rate. Survival was affected by nodal involvement and local failure. A separate analysis of two periods of time (1974-1989 and 1990-2001) did not show any differences in terms of treatment results. This retrospective study suggests that age is not a negative prognostic factor as far as adequate curative treatments are carried out. Therapeutic modalities having considerably evolved in prostate cancer, a further analysis with a longer follow up may allow the evaluation of these treatments on rates of failures and survival. Screening for prostate cancer in family histories is likely to increase the number of cases diagnosed before 55. Therefore, a complete information on morbidity associated to the different means of treatment would lead to a better acceptance of late side effects.