Combined surgery and postoperative radiation therapy for advanced laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinomas

The survival, pattern of failure and complications in 47 patients with Stage III and IV cancers of the glottis, supraglottis and hypopharynx treated with surgery and postoperative radiotherapy using a new treatment technique referred to as "mini-mantle" were analyzed. The absolute survival probability of the entire group was 53 and 31% at 3 and 5 years. The local control probability at 3 and 5 years was 63 and 58%, and was higher for the supraglottic/hypopharyngeal than for glottic carcinomas. Advanced lesions, lymph node metastases and positive resection margins were significantly related to a worse local control. Five patients developed complications requiring surgical correction, but none experienced mortality. Moderate complications were treated conservatively without lasting sequelae. This technique is a reasonably safe and efficient procedure and can be effectively employed for the management of advanced laryngeal and hypopharyngeal carcinomas after definitive surgery

Imaging Primary Lung Cancers in Mice to Study Radiation Biology

Purpose To image a genetically engineered mouse model of non–small-cell lung cancer with micro–computed tomography (micro-CT) to measure tumor response to radiation therapy. Methods and Materials The Cre-loxP system was used to generate primary lung cancers in mice with mutation in K-ras alone or in combination with p53 mutation. Mice were serially imaged by micro-CT, and tumor volumes were determined. A comparison of tumor volume by micro-CT and tumor histology was performed. Tumor response to radiation therapy (15.5 Gy) was assessed with micro-CT. Results The tumor volume measured with free-breathing micro-CT scans was greater than the volume calculated by histology. Nevertheless, this imaging approach demonstrated that lung cancers with mutant p53 grew more rapidly than lung tumors with wild-type p53 and also showed that radiation therapy increased the doubling time of p53 mutant lung cancers fivefold. Conclusions Micro-CT is an effective tool to noninvasively measure the growth of primary lung cancers in genetically engineered mice and assess tumor response to radiation therapy. This imaging approach will be useful to study the radiation biology of lung cancer