Efficacy of intensity-modulated radiotherapy with concurrent carboplatin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Background. The aim of the prospective phase II study was to evaluate the efficacy and toxicities of concurrent carboplatin with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC)

Imaging nodal volume and survival in oral tongue cancer with cervical lymph node metastasis

Objectives: Oral tongue cancer is the most prevalent type of oral cavity cancer and presents the worst prognosis. With the use of TNM staging system, only the size of primary tumor and lymph node are considered. However, several studies have considered the primary tumor volume as a possible significant prognostic factor. Our study, therefore, aimed to explore the role of nodal volume from imaging as a prognostic implication. Methods: Medical records and imaging (either from Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan) of 70 patients diagnosed with oral tongue cancer with cervical lymph node metastasis between January 2011 and December 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. The pathological lymph node was identified, and nodal volume was measured using the Eclipse radiotherapy planning system and was further analysed for its prognostic implications, particularly on overall survival, disease-free survival, and distant metastasis-free survival. Results: From A Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the optimal cut-off value of the nodal volume was 3.95 cm3, to predict the disease prognosis, in terms of overall survival and metastatic-free survival (p ≤ 0.001 and p = 0.005, respectively), but not the disease-free survival (p = 0.241). For the multivariable analysis, the nodal volume, but not TNM staging, was a significant prognostic factor for distant metastasis. Conclusions: In patients with oral tongue cancer and cervical lymph node metastasis, the presence of an imaging nodal volume of ≥3.95 cm3 was a poor prognostic factor for distant metastasis. Therefore, the lymph node volume may have a potential role to adjunct with the current staging system to predict the disease prognosis. Level of Evidence: 2b

Prognostic value of plasma EBV DNA for nasopharyngeal cancer patients during treatment with intensity-modulated radiation therapy and concurrent chemotherapy

Plasma EBV DNA concentrations at the time of diagnosis (pre-EBV) and post treatment (post-EBV) have significant value for predicting the clinical outcome of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) patients. However, the prognostic value of the EBV concentration during radiation therapy (mid-EBV) has not been vigorously studied

A prospective randomized study comparing the efficacy between povidone-iodine gargling and benzydamine hydrochloride for mucositis prevention in head and neck cancer patients receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy

Background: Concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT) has been the standard treatment for organ preservation or locally advanced head and neck cancer (LAHNC). Radiation-induced oral mucositis (RIOM) is an important treatment-limiting toxicity. Benzydamine hydrochloride was recommended to prevent oral mucositis. Povidone-iodine had also been adopted to use as an oral rinse to prevent mucositis. Objective: This study compared the efficacy between benzydamine hydrochloride and 0.1% povidone-iodine to prevent RIOM in HNC patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Methods: We conducted a randomized control study in HNC patients receiving CCRT with curative intent. The stratification factors were primary site of disease, treatment modality, chemotherapy regimen, and schedule. The primary outcome was RIOM assessed by Oral Mucositis Assessment Scale (OMAS). Secondary outcomes included RIOM assessed by NCI-CTCAE, use of analgesic, antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs, hospitalization, and participant satisfaction. Results: There were 83 participants recruited for this study with 71 completing the trial. Demographic characteristics were well-balanced between both arms. The univariate regression analysis revealed that povidone-iodine correlated with less RIOM compared to benzydamine hydrochloride (coefficient −2.25, 95% CI -4.37 to −0.012, p-value 0.03). The incidence of grade III-IV CTCAE RIOM during the study period was 51.4% with benzydamine hydrochloride compared to 26.5% with 0.1% povidone iodine (p-value 0.032). The peak incidence of grade III-IV CTCAE RIOM occurred in the 7th week of treatment (40.5% vs. 11.8%, p-value 0.01). This indicated the efficacy of povidone-iodine to prevent severe RIOM which usually most severity in the last week of CCRT treatment. The multivariate analysis revealed that the CCRT setting (definitive vs. adjuvant) and gargling agents (povidone-iodine vs. benzydamine hydrochloride were the factors associated with RIOM. Conclusion: This study demonstrated higher efficacy of 0.1% povidone-iodine gargle than benzydamine hydrochloride in mucositis prevention

Multimodality radiomics for tumor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BackgroundThe prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is challenging due to late-stage identification and frequently undetectable Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA. Incorporating radiomic features, which quantify tumor characteristics from imaging, may enhance prognosis assessment.PurposeTo investigate the predictive power of radiomic features on overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in NPC.Materials and methodsA retrospective analysis of 183 NPC patients treated with chemoradiotherapy from 2010 to 2019 was conducted. All patients were followed for at least three years. The pretreatment CT images with contrast medium, MR images (T1W and T2W), as well as gross tumor volume (GTV) contours, were used to extract radiomic features using PyRadiomics v.2.0. Robust and efficient radiomic features were chosen using the intraclass correlation test and univariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. They were then combined with clinical data including age, gender, tumor stage, and EBV DNA level for prognostic evaluation using Cox proportional hazard regression models with recursive feature elimination (RFE) and were optimized using 20 repetitions of a five-fold cross-validation scheme.ResultsIntegrating radiomics with clinical data significantly enhanced the predictive power, yielding a C-index of 0.788 ± 0.066 to 0.848 ± 0.079 for the combined model versus 0.745 ± 0.082 to 0.766 ± 0.083 for clinical data alone (pConclusionsThe combination of multimodality radiomic features from CT and MR images could offer superior predictive performance for OS, PFS, and DMFS compared to relying on conventional clinical data alone

Improved prediction of radiation-induced hypothyroidism in nasopharyngeal carcinoma using pre-treatment CT radiomics

Abstract When planning radiation therapy, late effects due to the treatment should be considered. One of the most common complications of head and neck radiation therapy is hypothyroidism. Although clinical and dosimetric data are routinely used to assess the risk of hypothyroidism after radiation, the outcome is still unsatisfactory. Medical imaging can provide additional information that improves the prediction of hypothyroidism. In this study, pre-treatment computed tomography (CT) radiomics features of the thyroid gland were combined with clinical and dosimetric data from 220 participants to predict the occurrence of hypothyroidism within 2 years after radiation therapy. The findings demonstrated that the addition of CT radiomics consistently and significantly improves upon conventional model, achieving the highest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUCs) of 0.81 ± 0.06 with a random forest model. Hence, pre-treatment thyroid CT imaging provides useful information that have the potential to improve the ability to predict hypothyroidism after nasopharyngeal radiation therapy

Clinical features and their coefficients in the clinical model for prediction.

(A) overall survival (OS), (B) progression-free survival (PFS), and (C) distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. (PDF)</p

Patient demographics.

BackgroundThe prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is challenging due to late-stage identification and frequently undetectable Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) DNA. Incorporating radiomic features, which quantify tumor characteristics from imaging, may enhance prognosis assessment.PurposeTo investigate the predictive power of radiomic features on overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in NPC.Materials and methodsA retrospective analysis of 183 NPC patients treated with chemoradiotherapy from 2010 to 2019 was conducted. All patients were followed for at least three years. The pretreatment CT images with contrast medium, MR images (T1W and T2W), as well as gross tumor volume (GTV) contours, were used to extract radiomic features using PyRadiomics v.2.0. Robust and efficient radiomic features were chosen using the intraclass correlation test and univariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis. They were then combined with clinical data including age, gender, tumor stage, and EBV DNA level for prognostic evaluation using Cox proportional hazard regression models with recursive feature elimination (RFE) and were optimized using 20 repetitions of a five-fold cross-validation scheme.ResultsIntegrating radiomics with clinical data significantly enhanced the predictive power, yielding a C-index of 0.788 ± 0.066 to 0.848 ± 0.079 for the combined model versus 0.745 ± 0.082 to 0.766 ± 0.083 for clinical data alone (ppConclusionsThe combination of multimodality radiomic features from CT and MR images could offer superior predictive performance for OS, PFS, and DMFS compared to relying on conventional clinical data alone.</div

Clinical and CT-based radiomic features and their coefficients in the combined model without Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) value for prediction.

(A) overall survival (OS), (B) progression-free survival (PFS), and (C) distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. (PDF)</p

Boxplots of C-indices.

(A) overall survival (OS), (B) progression-free survival (PFS), (C) distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in training set and (D) OS, (E) PFS, (F) DMFS in test set of the clinical, combination of clinical and CT-based radiomic, and combination of clinical and CT- and MRI-based radiomics models.</p