The American Brachytherapy Society and Indian Brachytherapy Society consensus statement for the establishment of high-dose-rate brachytherapy programs for gynecological malignancies in low- and middle-income countries.

PURPOSE: The global cervical cancer burden is disproportionately high in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and outcomes can be governed by the accessibility of appropriate screening and treatment. High-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy plays a central role in cervical cancer treatment, improving local control and overall survival. The American Brachytherapy Society (ABS) and Indian Brachytherapy Society (IBS) collaborated to provide this succinct consensus statement guiding the establishment of brachytherapy programs for gynecological malignancies in resource-limited settings. METHODS AND MATERIALS: ABS and IBS members with expertise in brachytherapy formulated this consensus statement based on their collective clinical experience in LMICs with varying levels of resources. RESULTS: The ABS and IBS strongly encourage the establishment of HDR brachytherapy programs for the treatment of gynecological malignancies. With the consideration of resource variability in LMICs, we present 15 minimum component requirements for the establishment of such programs. Guidance on these components, including discussion of what is considered to be essential and what is considered to be optimal, is provided. CONCLUSIONS: This ABS/IBS consensus statement can guide the successful and safe establishment of HDR brachytherapy programs for gynecological malignancies in LMICs with varying levels of resources.

Oligometastatic breast cancer: An institutional analysis.

Introduction: Oligometastatic represents a distinctive subset of metastatic breast cancer (MBC). Incidence has been reported, in 1-5% of all newly diagnosed MBC. Literature is very sparse, especially from India. Material and Methods: We have ambispectively screened 500 patients of upfront female MBC between the period of January 2013 and August 2018 at Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and 120 patients of oligometastatic breast cancer (OMBC) were included for analysis. Clinical, pathological, receptor status (ER estrogen receptor, PR progesterone receptor, and HER2/neu human epidermal growth factor), radiological, treatment, and survival details were recorded. Results: The median age of presentation was 50 (range 22-78) years. One organ was involved in 96 (80%) patients, and two organs were involved in 36 (20%) patients. ER and/or PR was positive in 48 (40.0%), ER/PR, and HER2/neu were positive in 28 (23.3%) cases. Only HER2/neu was positive in 21 (17.5%), and triple negativity was seen in 23 (19.2%) patients. Ninety-four (78.3%) patients received neoadjuvant therapy, and 12 (10%) patients underwent conservative breast surgery. The overall response rate at the metastatic site was 74.1%, and a complete response was seen in 42.5% of patients. Median progression-free survival (PFS) for the cohort was 25.43 months. The estimated PFS at 2 years and, at 5 years, was 54.6% and 21.6%, respectively. The hormone receptor positivity, bone metastasis, and patients with surgery after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) had a statistically significant better PFS on multivariate analysis. In a subset analysis of HER2/neu receptor-positive patients, who received targeted therapy showed better PFS compared to those who did not receive. Conclusion: The incidence of OMBC is 24% of the total MBC. The patients with OMBC who have hormone receptor-positive, bone-only metastasis, and surgery after NACT show a better outcome.

Moment of truth-adding carboplatin to neoadjuvant/adjuvant chemotherapy in triple negative breast cancer improves overall survival: An individual participant data and trial-level Meta-analysis.

IMPORTANCE: Carboplatin increases the pathological complete remission (pCR) rate in triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) when added to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, however, evidence on its effect on survival outcomes is controversial. METHODS: The study was prospectively registered at PROSPERO (CRD42021228386). We systematically searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Clinical Trials, and conference proceedings from January 1, 2004 to January 30, 2022 for relevant randomized clinical trials (RCTs) of (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in TNBC patients, with carboplatin in the intervention arm and standard anthracycline taxane (AT) in the control arm. PRISMA guidelines were used for this review. Data were pooled using fixed and random effects models as appropriate on extracted hazard ratios (HR). Individual patient data (IPD)for disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were extracted from published survival curves of included RCTs; DFS and OS curves for each trial and the combined population were reconstructed, and HR estimated. The primary outcome was DFS; OS, pCR, and toxicity were secondary outcomes. RESULTS: Eight trials with 2425 patients were included. Carboplatin improved DFS (HR 0.60; 95% CI 0.47 to 0.78; I2 45%, p < 0.001) compared with AT at trial level and IPD level (HR 0.66; 95%CI, 0.55 to 0.80, p < 0.001) analysis. The OS also improved with carboplatin at both trial level (HR 0.69, 95%CI 0.50 to 0.95, I2 41%, p = 0.02) and IPD level (HR 0.68; 95%CI, 0.54 to 0.87, p = 0.002) analysis. The pCR as expected, was better in the carboplatin arm (OR 2.11; 95% CI = 1.44-3.08; I2 67%, p = 0.009). Anaemia and thrombocytopaenia were higher in the carboplatin arm. CONCLUSION: and relevance: Carboplatin added to (neo)adjuvant chemotherapy in TNBC improves survival, as shown in both trial level and IPD analysis.

Outcomes of thymoma treated with multimodality approach: a tertiary cancer center experience of 71 patients.

AIMS: To explore the demographics and clinical outcome of patients with thymoma treated with a multimodality approach at our institute. METHODS: A total of 71 patients with thymoma (Masaoka stage II-IV and WHO subtype AB-B3) treated from 1999-2013 were included in this retrospective analysis. Age, stage, WHO subtypes, details of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy were noted. Progression-free survival (PFS) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier method and SPSS (version 21.0) was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Male:female ratio was 56:15 with median age at presentation of 41 years. Stage-wise distribution was 6:46:19 for stage II, stage III, and stage IV, respectively. A total of 31 patients (44%) had associated myasthenia gravis and 3 had pure red cell aplasia. A total of 57 patients (80%) underwent radical thymectomy and all of these patients received adjuvant radiotherapy. A total of 15 patients and 7 patients received adjuvant chemotherapy and neoadjuvant chemotherapy, respectively. At median follow-up of 19.3 months (range 7.9-72.3 months), 2-year and 3-year PFS rate for the entire cohort was 78.3% and 57.1%, respectively. On univariate analysis, surgery (hazard ratio [HR] 3.881; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.784-19.220; p = 0.006) and stage (HR 5.457; 95% CI 1.567-18.996; p = 0.0001) were significant prognostic factors and association with myasthenia gravis (HR 0.404; 95% CI 0.151-1.078; p = 0.078) trended towards better PFS. Stage retained its prognostic significance (HR 5.501; 95% CI 2.076-14.573; p = 0.0006) on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Multimodality management of locally advanced thymoma yields decent survival outcomes. Masaoka stage is an independent prognostic factor for survival and radical surgery should be contemplated in all cases of locoregionally limited thymoma.

A patient-based dosimetric study of intracavitary and interstitial brachytherapy in advanced stage carcinoma of the cervix.

Intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT) and interstitial brachytherapy (IB) techniques are commonly practiced for treating carcinoma of the cervix, either alone or in combination with external beam radiotherapy. Both these brachytherapy techniques have their own advantages and limitations in terms of tumor coverage and normal tissue sparing. Limited studies have been reported comparing the dosimetric features of these two techniques, especially from a single institution. We carried out a prospective clinical dosimetric comparison between ICBT and IB for patients treated at one center to bring out the inherent dosimetric features of these to two techniques. The study was carried out on 26 patients treated with ICBT and 55 with IB using CT-based planning. Of the 55 patients treated with IB, 27 included tandem source loading (IBT) and 28 without the tandem loading (IBWT). The high-dose volumes covered by 200% and 180% isodose surfaces were considerably larger in ICBT as compared to IB, whereas the treated volume was larger in IB as compared to ICBT. The bladder and rectal doses were the highest in ICBT and IBWT, respectively. The larger treated volume in IB as compared to ICBT was mainly because patients with larger tumor volumes were generally considered for IB. The results also indicated that in interstitial brachytherapy, better rectal sparing was achieved by including the tandem for treatment delivery.

Comparison of high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy dosimetry with and without anesthesia in patients with cervical carcinoma.

This study compares the dosimetry of high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy (HDR-ICBT) performed with and without general anesthesia/spinal anesthesia (GA/SA) in patients with cervical carcinoma. We retrospectively retrieved the records of 138 HDR-ICBT applicator insertions performed in 46 patients: 69 performed with GA/SA (anesthesia group known as AG) in 23 patients, and 69 performed without GA/SA (nonanesthesia group known as NAG) in 23 patients. The intracavitary brachytherapy (ICBT) application was done with central tandem and two vaginal ovoids. For each ICBT plan, a high-dose-rate (HDR) dose of 7 Gy was prescribed to point A. From each plan, the doses to Point B right (B(R)), Point B left (B(L)), bladder and rectal reference points (Bladder(ref) and Rectal(ref)) were recorded and compared in the two groups. Student's t-test was applied to find out the significance of difference. The two groups were comparable in terms of demography and clinical characteristics. Mean Point BL doses in AG and NAG were 1.89 Gy (27% of Point A dose) and 1.82 Gy (26% of Point A dose), respectively. Mean Point BR doses in AG and NAG were 1.91 Gy (27% of Point A dose) and 1.85 Gy (26% of point A), respectively (p-value 0.7). The mean dose to Bladder(ref) in AG and NAG was 5.03 Gy and 4.90 Gy, respectively (p-value 0.6). The mean dose to Rectal(ref) was significantly higher in AG than NAG (5.09 Gy vs. 4.49 Gy, p-value 0.01). Although based on conventional 2D dosimetry planning, our study has demonstrated that avoiding GA/SA does not result in inferior HDR-ICBT dosimetry.

Prospective evaluation of qualitative and quantitative ¹8F-FDG PET-CT parameters for predicting survival in recurrent carcinoma of the cervix.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of qualitative and quantitative F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG) PET-computed tomography (PET-CT) parameters in patients with recurrent cervical carcinoma. METHODS: Twenty-six patients (age: 44 ± 10.1 years) with histologically proven recurrent carcinoma of the cervix (squamous, 21; adenocarcinoma, five) were prospectively enrolled and they underwent F-FDG PET-CT before salvage therapy. The qualitative parameters included for analysis were vaginal involvement, regional nodal metastasis, and distant metastasis on PET-CT. The quantitative PET-CT parameters included were standardized uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV), and total lesion glycolysis (TLG). Cutoff values were determined using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was carried out to compare survival among groups. Impact of PET-CT parameters on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was evaluated using Cox proportional hazard regression. RESULTS: On PET-CT, vaginal involvement was seen in 16 patients, regional nodal metastasis in 12 patients, and distant metastasis (node and lung) in 11 patients. The mean SUVmax was 6.8 ± 4, MTV was 8.2 ± 12.8 ml, and TLG was 49.6 ± 108.4 ml. On multivariate analysis, SUVmax of up to 4.9 [hazard ratio (HR): 0.026, confidence interval (CI): 0.002-0.268, P=0.002] and distant metastasis (HR: 18.88, CI: 2.14-166.24, P=0.008) were independent predictors of PFS. On multivariate analysis, SUVmax greater than 9 (HR: 19.25, CI: 2.15-172.17, P=0.008) and distant metastasis (HR: 33.88, CI: 2.17-526.61, P=0.012) were also independent predictors of OS. MTV, TLG, and regional node involvement evaluated using PET-CT were found to be significant on univariate analysis but not on multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: SUVmax and the presence of distant metastasis on F-FDG PET-CT are independent predictors of PFS and OS in patients with recurrent cervical carcinoma.

Radiation therapy in paediatric gliomas: our institutional experience.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The aim of our retrospective study was to analyze the clinical outcome of paediatric glioma patients treated with radiation therapy (RT) in our institution. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We retrieved the case records of all children with gliomas (age < 18 years) who received RT in our department between 2004 and 2007. We analyzed the information regarding patients' demography, clinical details, treatment given, RT details, and survival. The event-free survival (EFS), the period from the date of completion of RT to the date of the event, i.e. death/recurrence, was calculated with respect to age, sex, location of tumour (brainstem vs. non-brainstem), histopathology (low grade vs. high grade), extent of surgical resection, dose and duration of RT, and use of chemotherapy. RESULTS: A total of 70 children with glioma received RT during the above-mentioned period. The 3-year EFS rate for all patients was 44% and the median EFS period was 18 months. The 3-year EFS in patients who underwent surgical decompression and no surgery was 58% and 25%, respectively (p < 0.05). Patients with brainstem lesions had statistically significantly lower 3-year EFS to non-brainstem gliomas (28% vs. 56%, p < 0.01). Chemotherapy use showed no statistically significant trend towards better survival. CONCLUSIONS: RT is an effective modality of treatment in paediatric glioma patients in our setup. Early use of RT in incompletely resected low-grade gliomas is worth revisit-ing. Results of chemotherapy in high-grade glioma and brainstem gliomas are encouraging.

Lycopene in treatment of high-grade gliomas: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: The therapeutic benefit of lycopene is well established for carcinoma prostate in various clinical trials and has been proposed for other malignancies including high-grade gliomas. SETTING AND DESIGN: Randomized placebo control study in the Department of Radiation Oncology of a teaching hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fifty patients with high-grade gliomas were treated with surgery followed by adjuvant radiotherapy and concomitant paclitaxel. Patients were randomized to receive either oral lycopene (Group A) 8 mg daily with radiotherapy or placebo (Group B). Pre-and post-radiotherapy plasma lycopene levels were measured using high-precision liquid chromatography. McDonald's criteria were used for response assessment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomograph (SPECT) were done three-monthly for two visits and six-monthly thereafter. Primary endpoint was response at six months post radiotherapy. Statistical Analysis Used : The data was analyzed using SPSS Software v10.0 (SPSS corporation Chicago IL) by applying Student's t-test, ANOVA F test, Chi-square test and Karl Pearson Correlation Coefficient. RESULTS: Median age was 38 years. The commonest histology was glioblastoma multiforme (n = 32). Pre- and post-treatment plasma lycopene levels in the patients in Gropu A were 152 ng/ml and 316 ng/ml and in the patients in Group B were 93 ng/ml and 98 ng/ml (P = 0.009). There was non-significant differences in favor of lycopene between Group A and Group B with higher overall response at six months (P = 0.100), response at last follow-up (P = 0.171) and time to progression (40.83 vs. 26.74 weeks, P = 0.089)., The follow-up duration was significantly higher for Group A than Group B (66.29 vs. 38.71 weeks, P = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Addition of nutrition supplements such as lycopene may have potential therapeutic benefit in the adjuvant management of high-grade gliomas.

Pulsed-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy for cervical carcinoma: the AIIMS experience.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of present study was to analyze the results of pulsed-dose-rate (PDR) brachytherapy in patients with cervical carcinoma treated at our center. METHODS: From September 2003 to September 2005, 48 patients with histopathologically proved cervical carcinoma, stages IB to IVA, were treated with PDR intracavitary radiotherapy (ICRT) and pelvic irradiation at our center. Radiotherapy consisted of whole pelvis external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) with a dose of 40 Gy in 22 fractions over 4.5 weeks followed by 10 Gy in 5 fractions over 1 week with midline shielding. Weekly chemotherapy (Cisplatin, 40 mg/m) was administered during the course of EBRT to suitable patients. After an interval of 1 to 2 weeks, a single session of standard ICRT application was done to deliver a dose of 27 Gy to point A by PDR (hourly pulse, 70 cGy). RESULTS: Median age was 50 years (range: 30-65). FIGO stage distribution of the patients was as follows: stage IB, 6; stage IIA, 1; stage IIB, 15; stage IIIB, 25; and stage IVA, 1. Follow-up period ranged from 3 to 50 months (median: 15 months). Ten patients had disease recurrence (5 each in stage IIB and stage IIIB). Eight patients had pelvic failure, 1 had bone metastases, and 1 had supraclavicular node metastases. Overall grades III to IV late toxicity rate at 50 months was 6%. For the median follow-up period of 15 months, the actuarial recurrence-free survival in stages I to II was 82% and stages III to IV was 78%. CONCLUSION: Our results reveal that PDR ICRT in combination with pelvic EBRT provides excellent pelvic disease control, survival, and low radiation related morbidity rate in the patients with cervical carcinoma.

Cystosarcoma phyllodes: our institutional experience.

Twenty-six patients of Cystosarcoma phyllodes, treated between July 1994 and July 2001, were analysed retrospectively. Median age at presentation was 38 years (range 13-61 years). Mean size of the lesion was 6 cm. There were 77% left-sided lesions and 23% right-sided lesions. Histologically, 58% lesions were benign, 11% borderline and 31% malignant lesions. All patients underwent definitive surgical procedure in the form of wide local excision or mastectomy. Four patients received postoperative radiotherapy. Median follow-up period was 35 months. Six patients showed recurrence, and four of these were malignant. Median disease-free survival period was 34 months.