The curative role of radiotherapy in adenocarcinoma of the prostate in patients under 55 years of age: a rare cancer network retrospective study.

To determine whether radiation therapy could be an acceptable alternative to surgery in young patients with adenocarcinoma of the prostate, we analysed the outcome of 39 patients aged under 55 with organ confined tumours who received external radiation therapy in a curative intent. Our results suggest that similar local control in younger and older patients can be expected from either external beam radiotherapy or radical prostatectomy.

Multiparametric PET/CT-perfusion does not add significant additional information for initial staging in lung cancer compared with standard PET/CT.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship of CT-perfusion (CTP), 18F-FDG-PET/CT and histological parameters, and the possible added value of CTP to FDG-PET/CT in the initial staging of lung cancer. METHODS: Fifty-four consecutive patients (median age 65 years, 15 females, 39 males) with suspected lung cancer were evaluated prospectively by CT-perfusion scan and 18F-FDG-PET/CT scan. Overall, 46 tumors were identified. CTP parameters blood flow (BF), blood volume (BV), and mean transit time (MTT) of the tumor tissue were calculated. Intratumoral microvessel density (MVD) was assessed quantitatively. Differences in CTP parameters concerning tumor type, location, PET positivity of lymph nodes, TNM status, and UICC stage were analyzed. Spearman correlation analyses between CTP and 18F-FDG-PET/CT parameters (SUVmax, SUVmean, PETvol, and TLG), MVD, tumor size, and tumor stage were performed. RESULTS: The mean BF (mL/100 mL min-1), BV (mL/100 mL), and MTT (s) was 35.5, 8.4, and 14.2, respectively. The BF and BV were lower in tumors with PET-positive lymph nodes (p = 0.02). However, the CTP values were not significantly different among the N stages. The CTP values were not different, depending on tumor size and location. No significant correlation was found between CTP parameters and MVD. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the CTP information showed only little additional information for the initial staging compared with standard FDG-PET/CT. Low perfusion in lung tumors might possibly be associated with metabolically active regional lymph nodes. Apart from that, both CTP and 18F-FDG-PET/CT parameter sets may reflect different pathophysiological mechanisms in lung cancer.

The essential role of radiotherapy in the treatment of Merkel cell carcinoma: a study from the Rare Cancer Network.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the role of postoperative radiotherapy (RT) in Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). METHODS AND MATERIALS: A retrospective multicenter study was performed in 180 patients with MCC treated between February 1988 and September 2009. Patients who had had surgery alone were compared with patients who received surgery and postoperative RT or radical RT. Local relapse-free survival (LRFS), regional relapse-free survival (RRFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) rates were assessed together with disease-free survival (DFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and overall survival (OS) rates. RESULTS: Seventy-nine patients were male and 101 patients were female, and the median age was 73 years old (range, 38-93 years). The majority of patients had localized disease (n = 146), and the remaining patients had regional lymph node metastasis (n = 34). Forty-nine patients underwent surgery for the primary tumor without postoperative RT to the primary site; the other 131 patients received surgery for the primary tumor, followed by postoperative RT (n = 118) or a biopsy of the primary tumor followed by radical RT (n = 13). Median follow-up was 5 years (range, 0.2-16.5 years). Patients in the RT group had improved LRFS (93% vs. 64%; p < 0.001), RRFS (76% vs. 27%; p < 0.001), DMFS (70% vs. 42%; p = 0.01), DFS (59% vs. 4%; p < 0.001), and CSS (65% vs. 49%; p = 0.03) rates compared to patients who underwent surgery for the primary tumor alone; LRFS, RRFS, DMFS, and DFS rates remained significant with multivariable Cox regression analysis. However OS was not significantly improved by postoperative RT (56% vs. 46%; p = 0.2). CONCLUSIONS: After multivariable analysis, postoperative RT was associated with improved outcome and seems to be an important component in the multimodality treatment of MCC.

[Prostate cancer diagnosed before 55: a retrospective study from the Rare Cancer Network]. / Cancers de la prostate diagnostiqués avant 55 ans: une étude rétrospective du groupe des cancers rares.

This retrospective study on a large number of cases offers a vision of the modalities of care in prostate cancer diagnosed before the age of 55, according to different policies, aiming to propose other directions for 2005. Between January 1974 and December 2001, 365 patients had a pathological diagnosis of prostate cancer occurring before the age of 55. These patients were referred to the departments of radiation therapy affiliated to the Rare Cancer Network. A questionnaire was filled in retrospectively to allow further analysis of medical and surgical data. The treatments were those recommended at the time of analysis and progressed according to new accepted standards. Clinical and pathological features of the patients were as follows: 36% of the tumours were Gleason > 7 scored, 56% of the patients had a T3-T4 and 31 had metastases at the time of diagnosis. As far as treatment was concerned, 4 groups were considered: 83 patients had a radical prostatectomy, 155 received radiation therapy with a curative intent, 87 were treated by hormonal manipulation, and the remaining 40 patients received palliative care. The free of disease survival rate at 10 years was 38% for patients without immediate metastases, only 1% of patients with metastases were alive. The multivariate analysis demonstrated the significant impact of radiotherapy on both local and distant failure rates and of T stage on distant failure rate. Survival was affected by nodal involvement and local failure. A separate analysis of two periods of time (1974-1989 and 1990-2001) did not show any differences in terms of treatment results. This retrospective study suggests that age is not a negative prognostic factor as far as adequate curative treatments are carried out. Therapeutic modalities having considerably evolved in prostate cancer, a further analysis with a longer follow up may allow the evaluation of these treatments on rates of failures and survival. Screening for prostate cancer in family histories is likely to increase the number of cases diagnosed before 55. Therefore, a complete information on morbidity associated to the different means of treatment would lead to a better acceptance of late side effects.