Postoperative high dose-rate intravaginal brachytherapy combined with external irradiation for early stage endometrial cancer: a long-term follow-up.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the long-term control of disease and cure rate, complications, second malignancy, and survival of early-stage endometrial cancer patients treated with surgery, high dose-rate brachytherapy, and external beam radiation therapy. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From 1969 through 1979, 300 patients with clinically staged Stage I-II endometrial cancer underwent total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy, followed by high dose-rate intravaginal radiation, 7 Gy x 3 to 0.5 cm from the mucosal surface, using a remote afterloading technique. External beam radiation therapy, 40 Gy to midplane in 4 weeks, was delivered to high risk patients through AP/PA and lateral fields. RESULTS: The patients were followed for 5-24 years (median 12). The actuarial progression-free survival rate was 96.6%. Post-treatment grade 1-2 actuarial complication rate was 9.5%, including cystitis (4.5%), vaginal stenosis (2.5%), proctitis (1.5%), vaginal necrosis (0.5%), and partial bowel obstruction (0.5%). Neither grade 3-4 complications nor additional late complications were observed in any of our patients. Relapse rate was only 3.7%, of which 45.5% were local, 45.5% were distant, and 9% were mixed. All the patients with relapse were postmenopausal, age range of 58-77 years, with tumor grade 2-3 in 64%. Second primary cancer rate was 12.8% (mostly breast and colon). Factors that were associated with improved prognosis were young age, premenopausal, low grade, no extrauterine disease, and a histology of adenocarcinoma (adenocarcinoma with squamous metaplasia). CONCLUSION: High dose rate intravaginal radiation therapy combined with surgery and external beam radiation therapy achieved a high cure rate small number of minor complications. No long-term treatment-related complications were noted in any of the patients. This treatment combination may be safely applied to patients with early stage endometrial cancer.

Therapy and prognosis of testicular carcinomas in relation to TNM classification.

Eight-hundred and thirty-one patients with testicular carcinomas, either teratocarcinoma (405), embryonal carcinoma (406) or pure choriocarcinoma (20), treated mainly at our center from 1950 to 1976, were clinicopathologically staged according to the TNM Classification. The cancer was confined to the body of testis alone (T1 N0 M0) or extended to paratesticular structures (T2-4 N0 M0) in 37% of all patients. Para-aortic lymph nodes were found involved (N1-3) in 33% and juxtaregional lymph nodes (N4) in 9% of patients; distant metastases were detected initially in the lung alone (M1) and other distant organs (M2) in 21% of the patients. Postorchiectomy treatment was retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy with or without regional-juxtaregional irradiation and systemic chemotherapy in 470 patients; the other 361 patients received external irradiation and/or adjuvant chemotherapy. Survival determined at 5 years was 58% in teratocarcinoma cases, 41% in embryonal carcinoma cases and 0% in pure choriocarcinoma cases. Rates of 5-year survival according to the TNM staging were 81% for T1 N0 M0 tumors, 58% for T2-4 N0 M0 tumors, 44% for N1-3 M0 tumors, 33% for N4 M0 tumors and 10% for N0-4 M1 or 2 tumors. In patients who underwent lymphadenectomy with or without external irradiation, the 5-year survival rates with and without adjuvant chemotherapy, respectively, were 96% and 86% for T1 N0 M0 tumors, 100% and 60% for T2-4 N0 M0 tumors, 66% and 42% for N1-3 M0 tumors, 54% and 40% for N4 M0 tumors and 38% and 0% for N0-4 M1 tumors. In patients treated by external irradiation alone or following lymphadenectomy the rates of 5-year survival with versus without adjuvant chemotherapy were 100% versus 66% for T1-4 N0 M0 tumors, 44% versus 18% for N1-3 M0 tumors, 41% versus 22% for N4 M0 tumors and 3% versus 4% for N0-4 M1-2 tumors.

Interstitial irradiation for unresectable carcinoma of the lung.

From 1963 to 1971, 105 patients with histologically proved cancer of the lung were explored at Memorial Hospital and underwent interstitial implantation using encapsulated sources of radon 222 (53 patients) or iodine 125 (52 patients). These lung cancers were considered unresectable because of extension of the disease into the mediastinum with fixation or invasion of the major vessels, trachea, and esophagus or chest wall involvement. No apical lesions, which have a better prognosis, are included in this review. Sixty-nine patients had epidermoid cancer, 24 had adenocarcinoma, and the remaining 12 had various other histological types. All patients were staged according to the criteria proposed by the American Joint Committee using the TNM definitions (standing for tumor, nodes, and metastasis). Local control was obtained in 8 of 10 patients (80% with clinical Stage I and II unresectable cancers of the lung and in 44 of the 95 (46%) with clinical Stage III lung cancer. The two-year survival was 50% for Stages I and II and 7% for Stage III. Five patients have survived for five years or more. The complications, disease-free interval, local recurrences, distant metastases, and survival are presented and indications for this type of therapy outlined.

125I implantation for carcinoma of prostate. Further follow-up of first 100 cases.

Analysis of the first 100 patients at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center with Stage B or C prostatic cancer treated by pelvic lymph node dissection and Iodine-125 implantation and endocrine therapy when specifically indicated revealed five-year survival rates of 87 and 77 per cent, respectively. Tumor stage, tumor grade, and lymph node metastasis each correlated with survival, but the latter was the most significant factor. Although routine follow-up biopsies were not performed, local tumor control as judged by serial digital rectal examination defined a prognostically favored group of patients. In the absence of controls, however, whether the latter response indicates a salutary effect of the treatment which produces an improved survival or merely identifies a group of patients who were predetermined to have a more favorable survival is undetermined.

Interstitial radiation: short-term palliation or curative therapy?

The management of clinically localized prostatic cancer by interstitial implantation of 125I seeds has been under exploration at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for thirteen years. This investigation was prompted by clinical evidence of the radioresponsiveness of some prostatic cancers, the limited applicability of surgical excision, and the possibility that interstitial therapy would have less of an adverse effect on the quality of life than would alternative treatments. Cumulative experience indicates that the technique is associated with low morbidity and mortality and high functional preservation rates; local control rates (routine biopsies were not done), within the constraints of still-limited follow-up intervals, are in the 80 per cent to 90 per cent range; and actuarial survival rates at nine years (including patients who received endocrine therapy for metastatic or intractable local disease) are approximately 90 per cent for T1, 60 per cent for T2, and 45 per cent for T3 lesions. Approximate actuarial nine-year survival rates are 80 per cent for all patients with negative nodes and 50 per cent for all patients with positive nodes. Taking into account limitations of the data and the hazards of comparing this therapy with other uncontrolled treatments, 125I appears to be a therapeutic option for the control of clinically localized prostatic cancer.

Bladder cancer in men and women treated by radiation therapy and/or radical cystectomy.

Four-hundred fifty-one patients with bladder cancer, 348 men and 103 women, were treated by radiation therapy and/or radical cystectomy during the last two decades at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Radical cystectomy alone was the treatment in 98 men and 39 women. Radical radiation therapy to an average tumor dose of 6,000 rad in six weeks was given to 79 men and 30 women +/- one year before salvage cystectomy was done for recurrent or persistent tumors. Planned preoperative irradiation was delivered to the true pelvis either 4,000 rad in four weeks in 95 men and 24 women or 2,000 rad in one week in 76 men and 10 women +/- six weeks and two days, respectively, before radical cystectomy. Over-all survival and recurrence results in both sexes were similar, 40 per cent of men and 36 per cent of women were alive at five years without recurrence, 45 per cent of men and 48 per cent of women died in five or more years with local and/or distant recurrences, and 21 per cent of men and 15 per cent of women died before five years from causes other than cancer recurrence. Higher five-year survival for high clinical stage B2 to D1 tumors was noted similarly in the irradiated men (30 per cent) and women (37 per cent) than in the cystectomy alone patients (19 per cent in men and 4 per cent in women). Similar survival rates (52 to 57 per cent) were observed in men and women with low clinical stage O to B1 tumors treated with or without irradiation.

Status of integrated irradiation and cystectomy for bladder cancer.

The rationale and representative results of integrated irradiation and cystectomy for bladder cancer are reviewed and an hypothesis regarding the mechanism and benefits of such treatment formulated. The basis for uncertainty regarding the value of preoperative irradiation is outlined and a perspective on the resolution of this uncertainty provided.

Lung cancer: evaluation with MR imaging during and after irradiation.

We used magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to evaluate treatment response of 10 consecutive lung cancer patients while they were receiving radiation therapy. Patients were scanned before treatment, during treatment, at completion of treatment, and if possible, at 3-month intervals thereafter. The initial tumor response to radiation was increasing signal intensity and increasing heterogeneity, best seen on T2-weighted images. Small tumors virtually disappeared, whereas larger masses remained as complex cystic structures or developed cavities. The adjacent irradiated lung parenchyma had increased signal on both the T1- and T2-weighted images as early as 17 days after start of treatment. The signal intensity continued to increase for several months after treatment, but subsequently decreased.

Experience with interstitial implantation of iodine 125 in the treatment of prostatic carcinoma.

Between February 1970 and April 1977 300 patients with localized prostatic carcinoma were treated with I-125 implantation and bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). 68% had clinical Stage B (T-1 and T-2) and 32% had Stage C (T-3) neoplasms. Pelvic lymph nodes were histologically positive in 38% of the patients. Five-year survival for all patients was 73%. Five-year survival for Stage B disease was 100% and Stage C 65%. Lymph node metastases implied a poor prognosis. While 92% of patients with negative nodes survived five years, only 46% of the patients with positive nodes did so. Supplemental external radiation to pelvic and periaortic region in 28 patients with positive nodes did not improve survival or disease free interval or reduce distal or local recurrence but rather increased the incidence of radiation morbidity. The complications and morbidity as a consequence of I-125 implantation are minimal. The ultimate role of I-125 implantation in the management of localized prostatic cancer is yet to be determined. The early experience with this technique, however, suggests that it may be as effective as alternative modalities for comparable stages in terms of patient survival and may prove superior in terms of the quality of survival.