Executive Summary of the American Radium Society Appropriate Use Criteria for Local Excision in Rectal Cancer.

The goal of treatment for early stage rectal cancer is to optimize oncologic outcome while minimizing effect of treatment on quality of life. The standard of care treatment for most early rectal cancers is radical surgery alone. Given the morbidity associated with radical surgery, local excision for early rectal cancers has been explored as an alternative approach associated with lower rates of morbidity. The American Radium Society Appropriate Use Criteria presented in this manuscript are evidence-based guidelines for the use of local excision in early stage rectal cancer that include an extensive analysis of current medical literature from peer-reviewed journals and the application of a well-established consensus methodology (modified Delphi) used by a multidisciplinary expert panel to rate the appropriateness of imaging and treatment procedures. In those instances where evidence is lacking or not definitive, expert opinion may be used to recommend imaging or treatment. These guidelines are intended for the use of all practitioners and patients who desire information regarding the use of local excision in rectal cancer.

Biochemical and clinical experience with real-time intraoperatively planned permanent prostate brachytherapy.

PURPOSE: To evaluate patient characteristics and dosimetric parameters that predict biochemical failure (BCF) after real-time planned low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy. METHODS: From 1998 to 2008, a low-risk cohort by National Comprehensive Cancer Network criteria of 341 men with a median followup of 41.6 months was analyzed. This cohort had a median age of 65.1 years, prostate volume of 35.8cc, and pretreatment prostate-specific antigen of 5.6ng/mL. Patients had predominately Gleason 6 (95.9%) and T1c (81.3%) disease. About 3.6% of the patients received androgen deprivation therapy. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards survival analysis methods were used to analyze predictors of BCF (Phoenix definition). RESULTS: At 72 months, freedom from BCF was 91.1% (95% confidence interval=85.0-94.8). The median D(90) was 145.9Gy, and the median V(100) was 90.3%. Because of infrequent BCF, the following prostate volume groups were examined: 15-<25, 25-<35, 35-<45, and 45+cc. Of all possible predictors, only small prostate volume (15-<25cc group) was significantly associated with BCF (hazard ratio=8.44, 95% confidence interval=1.82-39.14, p=0.007). Using Kaplan-Meier analysis, time to BCF was also significantly increased in the lowest prostate volume 15-<25cc group with 24.1% failing at 48 months compared with 1.6-5.1% among the other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Real-time planned low-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy provides excellent biochemical control as a single-agent treatment for low-risk prostate cancer with 91.1% freedom from BCF at 72 months. Only prostate volume less than 25cc was an independent predictor of BCF.