Carcinoma of the oesophagus: correlation of radiological appearance with response to radiotherapy.

In order to predict possibility of local control in carcinoma of the oesophagus by radiotherapy, the relationship between the x-ray findings before and after radiotherapy were analyzed in 55 irradiated cases. In the superficial or proliferative type on x-ray before treatment, local control was observed in 87% cases with dose of 40 Gy, whereas in the ulcerative or infiltrative type it was observed in 20% cases. Radiation response is remarkably good in proliferative and superficial lesions seen in oesophagogram.

Inoperable non-small cell lung cancer: palliative radiotherapy with two weekly fractions.

Thirty seven cases (30 males; 7 females) of advanced non-small cell lung cancer were treated with short course of palliative radiotherapy. All the patients were inoperable. Their main symptoms were related to primary intrathoracic disease and poor performance status. Radiotherapy was delivered to a total dose of 17 Gy in two fractions one week apart. Ninety percent of the patients had cough, 50% complained of haemoptysis, 45% chest pain and 30% breathlessness. Palliation of main symptoms was achieved in majority of the patients, more than 90% in haemoptysis, 60% in cough, 70% in chest pain and 50% in breathlessness. Mean duration of palliation was four months and performance status improved in 60% of the patients. Short course radiotherapy of 17 Gy in two weekly fractions is recommended in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) having poor performance status.

Post orchiectomy management in stage II testicular seminoma.

Twenty eight patients with stage II A and twenty patients with stage II B testicular seminoma were treated at this institute between January 1982 and December 1988. The three year crude survival observed in this retrospective analysis was 82% and 75% respectively. Post orchiectomy infradiaphragmatic radiotherapy was the mainstay of the treatment. In stage II A 4 patients were administered adjuvant chemotherapy as well. Prophylactic Mediastinal Irradiation (PMI) was not employed as a routine in this subgroup. Eight patients (28%) relapsed (Mediastinal Nodes--4, Pulmonary--3, Scrotal--1). In stage II B twelve patients were treated with primary abdominal radiotherapy and of them 4 were delivered PMI as well. Induction chemotherapy was administered in remaining 8 patients. Seven patients (35%) relapsed (Pulmonary-4, Mediastinal Nodes-3). Mediastinal recurrence was noted only in those who were treated with abdominal radiotherapy alone. Though salvage chemotherapy proved successful in 5 of the seven patients (70%) with nodal relapse, none of the patients with extranodal relapse responded to subsequent chemotherapy. For stage II A we recommend abdominal radiotherapy alone and for stage II B Induction chemotherapy is advised keeping radiotherapy reserved for residual mass. We do not advocate PMI as a routine in stage II testicular seminoma as no survival benefit is observed.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina: a review of 70 cases.

Seventy cases of squamous cell carcinoma of the vagina registered between 1985 and 1989 were analyzed. The overall 2-year disease-free survival was 33%. Stagewise 2-year survivals were as follows: stage I, 100% (8/8); stage II, 70% (7/10); stage III, 19% (8/42); and stage IV, 0% (0/10). Incidentally, 60% of the cases presented below 50 years of age, and the majority of these were in advanced stage (p < 0.02). Due to the relatively greater number of cases of advanced disease in the elderly age group treated with external radiotherapy alone, a significant survival difference between the two age groups was not apparent (P > 0.10). External radiotherapy alone yielded poor results. External radiotherapy in combination with brachytherapy in the form of either vaginal cylinders or uterine tandems with vaginal cylinders resulted in 42 and 50% 2-year disease-free survivals, respectively. Advanced stage, more than two-thirds to full vaginal length involvement, and multiple vaginal wall involvement were found to be poor prognostic factors. The majority of cases had tumor grades 2 and 3. No association between tumor grade and survival was observed. To improve survival, downstaging of the disease through routine gynecological checkup, even in premenopausal women, and delivery of high doses through a judicious combination of external radiotherapy and brachytherapy are needed.

Extramedullary plasmacytoma of the larynx: a case report.

Of head and neck malignancies extramedullary plasmacytoma occurs in less than 1% cases. It is the rarest primary laryngeal malignancy. A 65-year-old man presented with dry cough and breathlessness for last 6 months. Direct laryngoscopic examination showed a gray-white submucosal mass in the subglottic region. Histopathological examination showed presence of pseudostratified columnar epithelium with underlying stroma having mature and immature plasma cells. The cells were mono to bi-nucleated having eccentric nuclei and condensed spoke like chromatin. Few cells had centrally placed nuclei with small but conspicuous nucleoli. Some cells resembling Reed-Sternberg cells were also seen. The patient was successfully treated with primary radical radiotherapy and showed no signs of local recurrence after a 12-month follow-up.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the cervix.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma constitute around 0.4 to 1.7% of all carcinomas of cervix. It generally presents in elderly age group, however few cases in younger age have also been reported. Majority of cases present in early stage. Though concluding statement regarding the results cannot be made from the cases accumulated from the various reported series, nonetheless this review shows that radiotherapy too is effective in early stage and even in stage I results with radiotherapy appear better than surgery. In advanced stage outcome is invariably poor. In early stage main pattern of failure is distant metastasis. Both local and distant failure are observed in stage III and IV. Though lung is the commonest site of metastases (51%), abdominal cavity and brain are also found to be involved in some cases. Limited experience shows effectiveness of high doses of cisplatin and multiagent chemotherapy. Cases of early stage disease having risk for metastases and local failure should be identified and managed with multimodality treatment using surgery for bulky disease with post-operative radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In advanced stages combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is required. Exenterative surgery for central failure has been used effectively. Overall no evidence of disease rate is found to be about 48%, with mean follow-up of 39 months.

Plasmacytoma of scalp.

An interesting case of plasmacytoma of the scalp is described. Extramedullary plasmocytoma of scalp is rarely reported. This patient was treated with external radiotherapy dose of which was 40 Gy/20 fraction. Disease responded very well to radiotherapy.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the cervix in a young patient.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the cervix is a rare disease. It usually occurs in an elderly age group. A case who presented at a younger age (30 years) is being reported. The chief complaint was excessive vaginal bleeding for 2 months. Per vaginum examination revealed a growth. She was staged FIGO IIIb. She was treated with radical radiotherapy. Disease regressed slowly and complete local response appeared after six months of treatment. Presentation of adenoid cystic carcinoma in younger age group and effect of radiotherapy in advanced stage is reviewed.

Primary rhabdomyosarcoma of the larynx.

Sarcomas constitute fewer than 1% of the head and neck cancers. They represent less than 1% of laryngeal cancers. Primary rhabdomyosarcoma of the larynx is an extremely rare malignancy. The available literature on this medical oddity is in the form of isolated case reports only. The purpose of this article is to add another case of primary rhabdomyosarcoma of a rare site, the larynx, of which only 36 cases have so far been reported in the world literature. The present patient, an eighteen-year-old boy is only the third case being reported from India among all reported cases of rhabdomyosarcoma of the larynx in the world literature.

Splenic irradiation in chronic myeloid leukemia.

Results of splenic irradiation as the initial and only method of treatment are reported in 25 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. Peripheral remission was induced in all the patients. Induction was achieved after a short period of 11 to 30 days in the majority of the patients, the longest period being 40 days. Several patients were in remission 9 months after treatment. The results are compared with those obtained by chemotherapy. Some advantages of splenic irradiation over chemotherapy are emphasized.

Surgery versus surgery and postoperative radiotherapy in squamous cell carcinoma of the buccal mucosa: a comparative study.

BACKGROUND: The efficacy of postoperative radiotherapy for squamous cell carcinoma of the buccal mucosa was evaluated. METHODS: One hundred seventy-six patients treated between 1989 and 1993 were analyzed. One hundred fifteen patients were treated with surgery alone (Group 1), and 61 patients were treated with a combination of surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (Group 2). RESULTS: Actuarial 3-year locoregional control in Groups 1 and 2 was 11% and 48% for patients with stage III + IV cancer (P = .001) and 71% and 75% for patients with stage I + II cancer (P = .74), respectively. On multivariate analysis for locoregional failure, surgical margin, bone invasion, high grade, and node involvement were significant factors in Group 1, whereas in Group 2 only tumor thickness was a significant factor. For local failure, margin, bone invasion, and stage in Group 1 and tumor thickness in Group 2 appeared as significant factors. For nodal failure, clinical nodal (cl N0 vs. N+) stage and grade in Group 1 and pathologic nodal stage (pN0 + 1 vs. pN2) in Group 2 were observed as significant factors. On subset analysis, postoperative radiotherapy was observed to have a significant advantage for surgical margins of 2 mm or less in both early pT (T1 + T2) (P = .019) and late pT (T3 + T4) (P = .016) stages. The local failure rate was higher if the time between surgery and radiotherapy was greater than 30 days. CONCLUSIONS: Postoperative radiotherapy was effective in decreasing locoregional failure in patients with close surgical margins, tumor thicker than 10 mm, high-grade tumors, positive node, and bone invasion. The effect of interval between surgery and postoperative radiotherapy on local failure was margin-dependent.

Scalp metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix.

We describe a 45-year-old woman with squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix stage IIB, who was initially treated with radical radiotherapy. The patient developed multiple scalp metastases 8 months following her treatment. The scalp was involved in the disease as the sole anatomic site of distant cutaneous metastasis. The scalp lesions were treated with palliative radiotherapy. A search of the literature revealed only two cases of such distant metastatic involvement of the scalp from cervical cancer.

Liposarcoma of the larynx treated with radiotherapy.

Liposarcoma of the larynx is an extremely rare malignancy. Only 18 cases have been reported in the literature. We herein report the first case of primary liposarcoma of supra-glottic larynx in a 53-years old male patient successfully treated with radiotherapy in August-September 1992. He currently remains free of the disease 4.5 years since the initial diagnosis.

Malignant schwannoma of the sinonasal tract.

Malignant Schwannoma of the sinonasal tract is an extremely rare tumour. So far, only 19 cases have been reported in the literature. We report herein a case of malignant schwannoma involving nasal cavity, maxillary antrum and ethmoid sinus in a 60-year-old male patient. The patient was treated with surgery and post-operative radiotherapy. He currently remains free of the disease 15 months after the diagnosis and twelve months after completing therapy.

Post-orchiectomy management in stage I testicular seminoma: elective irradiation or surveillance?

Fifty-six patients with stage I testicular seminoma were treated at this institute between January 1982 and December 1988. Post-orchiectomy elective radiotherapy to ipsilateral iliac-inguinal and para-aortic lymph nodes was delivered in 54 cases. An overall 3 year survival rate of 96% was observed in this series. Four patients (7%) relapsed (one junctional recurrence in iliac node region, two mediastinal/hilar nodes and one skeletal metastasis). Salvage chemotherapy proved successful in two out of three cases with nodal relapse. No dose limiting acute or late radiation related complications were noticed. No definite correlation was found between the patients who relapsed and various known adverse prognostic factors. We recommend elective irradiation of the draining lymph nodes in stage I seminoma, particularly at centres where surveillance is not feasible.

Leiomyosarcoma of the ovary.

A diagnosis of leiomyosarcoma of ovary was made in a 60 year old female presenting with generalised weakness and abdominal lump. On clinical examination, a hard, big mass with some cystic areas was found occupying the pelvic cavity. Chest X-ray revealed presence of metastases. Deranged renal function and structure due to extrinsic pressure were evident on pyelography and USG. USG also suggested the ovarian origin of the mass. Fine needle aspiration biopsy was suggestive of leiomyosarcoma. Laparotomy was carried out for excision of tumor along with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy and hysterectomy. Post-operatively renal functions normalized. A course of radiotherapy was given. At 6 months' follow-up, abdomino-pelvic sonography was normal but lung metastases were found to be enlarged. The patient was asked to follow up for chemotherapy but did not come. She died 18 months after treatment, as revealed through correspondence.

Effect of bleomycin-radiotherapy combination in management of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Twenty-five patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma were treated with bleomycin-radiotherapy protocol, 15 mg bleomycin I.V. on alternate days followed by radiation within half an hour. The average total dose of bleomycin was 150 mg. Radiotherapy was given daily. Two patients were lost to follow-up very early in the course of the treatment and were removed from the study for statistical purposes. Thirty-six patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who were treated with radiotherapy alone during the same period were used as controls. The patients were followed for two years. The incidence of response rate did not differ significantly between regimens; however the incidence of side effects with bleomycin-radiotherapy, 82.61%, is significantly more than that of radiotherapy alone (52.78%). Median survival time (MST) of those responding to bleomycin-radiotherapy protocol was seven months and 12 days and for radiotherapy responders was six months. Neither the response rate nor the MST improve significantly after pretreatment with bleomycin. On the contrary, the incidence of side effects increased significantly.