Reirradiation versus systemic therapy versus combination therapy for recurrent high-grade glioma: a systematic review and meta-analysis of survival and toxicity

Purpose: This review compares reirradiation (reRT), systemic therapy and combination therapy (reRT & systemic therapy) with regards to overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), adverse effects (AEs) and quality of life (QoL) in patients with recurrent high-grade glioma (rHGG). Methods: A search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Embase and CENTRAL. Studies reporting OS, PFS, AEs and/or QoL and encompassing the following groups were included; reirradiation vs systemic therapy, combination therapy vs systemic therapy, combination therapy vs reRT, and bevacizumab-based combination therapy vs reRT with/without non-bevacizumab-based systemic therapy. Meta-analyses were performed utilising a random effects model. Certainty of evidence was assessed using GRADE. Results: Thirty-one studies (three randomised, twenty-eight non-randomised) comprising 2084 participants were included. In the combination therapy vs systemic therapy group, combination therapy improved PFS (HR 0.57 (95% CI 0.41–0.79); low certainty) and OS (HR 0.73 (95% CI 0.56–0.95); low certainty) and there was no difference in grade 3 + AEs (RR 1.03 (95% CI 0.57–1.86); very low certainty). In the combination therapy vs reRT group, combination therapy improved PFS (HR 0.52 (95% CI 0.38–0.72); low certainty) and OS (HR 0.69 (95% CI 0.52–0.93); low certainty). In the bevacizumab-based combination therapy vs reRT with/without non-bevacizumab-based systemic therapy group, adding bevacizumab improved PFS (HR 0.46 (95% CI 0.27–0.77); low certainty) and OS (HR 0.42 (95% CI 0.24–0.72; low certainty) and reduced radionecrosis (RR 0.17 (95% CI 0.06–0.48); low certainty). Conclusions: Combination therapy may improve OS and PFS with acceptable toxicities in patients with rHGG compared to reRT or systemic therapy alone. Particularly, combining bevacizumab with reRT prophylactically reduces radionecrosis. Registration: CRD42022291741

Patterns of Failure after IMRT in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Unknown Primary: Implication of Elective Nodal and Mucosal Dose Coverage

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Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy in Recurrent and Oligometastatic Head and Neck Tumours

The treatment of head and neck cancers (HNCs) encompasses a complex paradigm involving a combination of surgery, radiotherapy, and systemic treatment. Locoregional recurrence is a common cause of treatment failure, and few patients are suitable for salvage surgery. Reirradiation with conventional radiation techniques is challenging due to normal tissue tolerance limits and the risk of significant toxicities. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has emerged as a highly conformal modality that offers the potential for cure while limiting the dose to surrounding tissue. There is also growing research that shows that those with oligometastatic disease can benefit from curative intent local ablative therapies such as SBRT. This review will look at published evidence regarding the use of SBRT in locoregional recurrent and oligometastatic HNCs

Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy as a Curative Treatment for De Novo Mucosal Carcinoma of the Head and Neck: A Feasible Alternative Option for Fragile Patients with Small Lesion: A Systematic Review †

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is characterized by a high dose per fraction, well-defined small targets, superior dose conformity, and a steep off-target dose gradient. A literature search was conducted to examine the experience with SBRT as a curative treatment for newly diagnosed mucosal carcinoma of the head and neck (MCHN). Four retrospective case series and one prospective phase I clinical trial published between 2012 and 2020 described 124 patients. SBRT was mainly performed in older patients with different tumor sites. The median size of the planning target volumes ranged from 5.3 to 41 cm3. Different approaches were used to create margins. In two studies, limited elective nodal irradiation was performed. The equivalent doses used were 60–83.33 Gy delivered in five fractions. Considerable heterogeneity was observed in the radiation dose specification. The incidence of grade ≥3 late toxicity was 0–8.3%, with local and regional control ranging from 73% to 100%. Improved or stable quality of life after SBRT was reported in two studies. Curative-intent SBRT for de novo MCHN appears to be an effective and relatively safe treatment for small tumor targets, preferably without concomitant elective tissue irradiation. Standardization of SBRT practice and well-designed prospective clinical trials are needed to better define the role of SBRT in this setting

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Lawson criterion for ignition exceeded in an inertial fusion experiment

For more than half a century, researchers around the world have been engaged in attempts to achieve fusion ignition as a proof of principle of various fusion concepts. Following the Lawson criterion, an ignited plasma is one where the fusion heating power is high enough to overcome all the physical processes that cool the fusion plasma, creating a positive thermodynamic feedback loop with rapidly increasing temperature. In inertially confined fusion, ignition is a state where the fusion plasma can begin "burn propagation" into surrounding cold fuel, enabling the possibility of high energy gain. While "scientific breakeven" (i.e., unity target gain) has not yet been achieved (here target gain is 0.72, 1.37 MJ of fusion for 1.92 MJ of laser energy), this Letter reports the first controlled fusion experiment, using laser indirect drive, on the National Ignition Facility to produce capsule gain (here 5.8) and reach ignition by nine different formulations of the Lawson criterion

Imaging and blood biomarkers: towards personalized medicine in head and neck cancer

© 2020 Sweet Ping NgHead and neck cancer is the 6th most common malignancy, accounting for approximately 4% of malignancies, and 1 – 2% of cancer-related deaths. Radiation therapy utilises high energy radiation to kill cancer cells. In head and neck cancer, radiotherapy is one of the main treatment modalities, particularly in curative-intent treatments. Despite advancements in imaging and radiation treatment planning and delivery, the prescribed dose and radiation treatment workflow remained unchanged and is largely ‘one size fits all’. Similarly, the survivorship program for patients with head and neck cancer is ‘one size fits all’, often one standard institutional follow up schedule for all patients treated for head and neck cancer, regardless of expected risk of treatment-related late toxicities, patients’ subsequent risk of recurrence and second malignancy. This thesis focuses on the value and efficacy of imaging and blood biomarkers in improving treatment personalisation in patients with head and neck cancer. In chapters 1 and 2, I explored the use of imaging and blood markers in the pre-, during, and post-radiotherapy settings to further improve risk stratification. In chapter 1, I investigated the potential use of readily available and ‘cheap’ blood biomarkers (neutrophil and lymphocyte counts) as predictors of subsequent outcomes in a large cohort of patients with oropharyngeal cancer. In chapter 2, I designed and conducted a prospective observational study to systematically characterize the kinetics of gross tumour volume and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) changes observed in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and circulating tumour cells (CTCs) counts during radiotherapy in patients with head and neck squamous cell cancer. In the survivorship period (Chapter 3), I evaluated the effectiveness of current surveillance program and investigated the potential use of PET imaging and alternative imaging frequencies to improve the cost-effectiveness of the survivorship program. In this chapter, I found that 70% of disease recurrence occur within 2 years and the probability of a surveillance imaging detecting a recurrence in an asymptomatic patient with no adverse clinical finding is very low. Furthermore, in patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-related oropharyngeal cancer, achieving a complete response on post-treatment PET imaging has a negative predictive value of any subsequent recurrence of 92%, so the yield of surveillance imaging is very low in this group. Using a partially observed Markov decision model, a potentially effective surveillance program with less frequent imaging was propositioned in this chapter. Finally, in chapter 4, I assessed the potential use of re-irradiation in the era of modern imaging and new radiation treatment techniques including intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), proton therapy and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). I showed the value of different imaging modality (dual energy CT and MRI) in target delineation in patients who had previous radiation. In addition, I demonstrated that the local control rate for each treatment technique is similar. Although wide field radiotherapy (IMRT and proton therapy) had improve disease-specific survival, treatment with these techniques are longer (typically 6 to 7 weeks) and had higher toxicity rates than SBRT (delivered over 5 treatments)

Support for the use of objective comorbidity indices in the assessment of noncancer death risk in prostate cancer patients

Background: Prostate cancer management involves a balance between the risks of cancer death against those from other causes. To evaluate the performance of several comorbidity indices in predicting comorbid death in a prostate cancer radiotherapy cohort. Methods: 2,131 men with localised prostate cancer treated with radical radiotherapy between 1999 and 2007 were studied. Tumour features, androgen deprivation usage, age, number of prescription medications (PMN) and Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 Index (ACE-27) were recorded. Death from prostate cancer (DPC) and death from other causes (DOC) were analysed as competing causes of death using a competing risks model, with discrimination assessed using the concordance index. Results: ACE-27 scores correlated with patient’s PMN (median PMN = 2). Tumour features were independent of ACE-27 scores. Estimated cumulative incidences of DOC and DPC at 10 years were 16.4% and 7.7% respectively. In the low/intermediate risk group (n = 1026) there was a 3.4-fold predominance of DOC inside 10 years (cumulative incidence: 15.8% DOC vs 3.4% DPC). High-risk men had approximately equal rates of DPC and DOC at 10 years. Multivariable analysis showed age, ACE-27 score ≥ 1 and PMN to have significant associations with DOC (P < 0.002 for all). A multivariable model incorporating all 3 variables resulted in C-Index = 0.646. Conclusion: Age, ACE-27 score and PMN act as independent prognostic factors for DOC in prostate cancer patients and can improve patient’s life expectancy prediction