Twenty-year review of radiotherapy for vaginal cancer: an institutional experience.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate clinical outcome, prognostic factors and chronic morbidity with radiotherapy for vaginal cancer treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 68 patients with vaginal cancer treated by radical or adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) were selected. Five with rare subtypes of histopathology and 8 with adenocarcinoma were excluded from this study. 76.4% of the remainder had early-stage diseases (stage I: 14, II: 28, III: 9, and IV: 4). The patients in the years from which they were treated were almost evenly distributed (1st 5 years: 13, 2nd: 14, 3rd: 16, and 4th: 12). There were four treatment groups: external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) alone (n=18), brachytherapy (BT) alone (n=4), EBRT and BT (n=30), and surgery plus RT (n=3). RESULTS: Median follow-up was 50.3 months ranging from 3 to 213 months. 5-year overall survival (OS) was 55.6%, disease-specific survival (DSS) was 77.3%, disease-free survival was 74.2%, and local control was 87.7%. Independent prognostic factors for DSS and OS were tumor stage, site and size (p<0.05). Late radiation toxicity was minimal in the bladder (4.6%) and bowel (4.6%). Vaginal morbidity was observed in 35 patients (63.6%). It was lowest in the BT alone (0%), and highest in the EBRT and BT group (82.1%), especially for those received more than 70 Gy (p=0.05, Odds ratio=4.64, 95% confidence interval: 1.01-21.65). CONCLUSION: This retrospective review suggested that tumor stage, site, and size were important prognostic factors in patients with vaginal cancer. Higher radiation dose was associated with more frequent vaginal toxicity.

Reirradiation after radical radiation therapy: a survey of patterns of practice among Canadian radiation oncologists.

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to survey the use of reirradiation (Re-RT) for in-field failures after previous radical radiation treatment (RT) among Canadian radiation oncologists (ROs). METHODS AND MATERIALS: An electronic survey was sent to 271 ROs in Canada. The completed surveys were received electronically via e-mail and the data were analyzed using SAS 9.1.3 software. RESULTS: A total of 183 ROs (67.5%) completed and returned the survey. The majority of the respondents were involved in the practice of either breast (48%) or genitourinary (43%) tumor sites. A total of 49% of the participants were interested in using Re-RT for the management of in-field recurrences. The goals of the therapy would be improvement of quality of life (99%), locoregional control (80%), or cure (32%). Most of the physicians believed that patients should have a minimum Karnofsky performance status of 50 or Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 3, a minimum life expectancy of 3 months, and a minimum interval from initial treatment of 3 months if Re-RT were to be given with curative intent. CONCLUSIONS: This survey showed that a wide variation existed among ROs in their approach to Re-RT. Newer technologies in RT planning and delivery would be employed to facilitate normal tissue avoidance. The results of this study suggested that a consensus meeting was needed to establish guidelines for the practice and prospective evaluation of Re-RT.

Assessment of extended-field radiotherapy for stage IIIC endometrial cancer using three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, and helical tomotherapy.

PURPOSE: To perform a dosimetric comparison of three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), and helical tomotherapy (HT) plans for pelvic and para-aortic RT in postoperative endometrial cancer patients; and to evaluate the integral dose (ID) received by critical structures within the radiation fields. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We selected 10 patients with Stage IIIC endometrial cancer. For each patient, three plans were created with 3D-CRT, IMRT, and HT. The IMRT and HT plans were both optimized to keep the mean dose to the planning target volume (PTV) the same as that with 3D-CRT. The dosimetry and ID for the critical structures were compared. A paired two-tailed Student t test was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Compared with the 3D-CRT plans, the IMRT plans resulted in lower IDs in the organs at risk (OARs), ranging from -3.49% to -17.59%. The HT plans showed a similar result except that the ID for the bowel increased 0.27%. The IMRT and HT plans both increased the IDs to normal tissue (see Table 1 and text for definition), pelvic bone, and spine (range, 3.31-19.7%). The IMRT and HT dosimetry showed superior PTV coverage and better OAR sparing than the 3D-CRT dosimetry. Compared directly with IMRT, HT showed similar PTV coverage, lower Ids, and a decreased dose to most OARs. CONCLUSION: Intensity-modulated RT and HT appear to achieve excellent PTV coverage and better sparing of OARs, but at the expense of increased IDs to normal tissue and skeleton. HT allows for additional improvement in dosimetry and sparing of most OARs.

radiotherapy-induced ID reaction.

To the authors' knowledge, there is a paucity of published accounts of radiotherapy-induced ID reaction. We report a case of generalized dermatitis pathologically defined as an ID reaction after a course of local radiotherapy.