A Systematic Review Informing the Management of Symptomatic Brain Radiation Necrosis After Stereotactic Radiosurgery and International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society Recommendations.

Radiation necrosis (RN) secondary to stereotactic radiosurgery is a significant cause of morbidity. The optimal management of corticosteroid-refractory brain RN remains unclear. Our objective was to summarize the literature specific to efficacy and toxicity of treatment paradigms for patients with symptomatic corticosteroid-refractory RN and to provide consensus guidelines for grading and management of RN on behalf of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society. A systematic review of articles pertaining to treatment of RN with bevacizumab, laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT), surgical resection, or hyperbaric oxygen therapy was performed. The primary composite outcome was clinical and/or radiologic stability/improvement (ie, proportion of patients achieving improvement or stability with the given intervention). Proportions of patients achieving the primary outcome were pooled using random weighted-effects analysis but not directly compared between interventions. Twenty-one articles were included, of which only 2 were prospective studies. Thirteen reports were relevant for bevacizumab, 5 for LITT, 5 for surgical resection and 1 for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Weighted effects analysis revealed that bevacizumab had a pooled symptom improvement/stability rate of 86% (95% CI 77%-92%), pooled T2 imaging improvement/stability rate of 93% (95% CI 87%-98%), and pooled T1 postcontrast improvement/stability rate of 94% (95% CI 87%-98%). Subgroup analysis showed a statistically significant improvement favoring treatment with low-dose (below median, ≤7.5 mg/kg every 3 weeks) versus high-dose bevacizumab with regards to symptom improvement/stability rate (P = .02) but not for radiologic T1 or T2 changes. The pooled T1 postcontrast improvement/stability rate for LITT was 88% (95% CI 82%-93%), and pooled symptom improvement/stability rate for surgery was 89% (95% CI 81%-96%). Toxicity was inconsistently reported but was generally low for all treatment paradigms. Corticosteroid-refractory RN that does not require urgent surgical intervention, with sufficient noninvasive diagnostic testing that favors RN, can be treated medically with bevacizumab in carefully selected patients as a strong recommendation. The role of LITT is evolving as a less invasive image guided surgical modality; however, the overall evidence for each modality is of low quality. Prospective head-to-head comparisons are needed to evaluate the relative efficacy and toxicity profile among treatment approaches

Post mastectomy radiotherapy for elderly patients with intermediate risk (T1-2N1 OR T3N0) breast cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis

10.21037/tcr.2019.07.23Translational Cancer Research9Suppl 1S23-S2

Impact of epidermal growth factor receptor sensitizing mutations on outcomes of patients with non-small cell lung cancer treated with definitive thoracic radiation therapy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

10.18632/oncotarget.21019Oncotarget865109712-10972

Efficacy of palliative bladder radiotherapy for hematuria in advanced bladder cancer using contemporary radiotherapy techniques

10.21873/invivo.11718In Vivo3362161-216

Adoption of prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) for extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC): A population based outcome study

10.1186/s13014-018-1184-xRadiation Oncology13124

Cardiovascular diseases among diffuse large B-cell lymphoma long-term survivors in Asia: a multistate model study.

BACKGROUND: We modeled the clinical course of a cohort of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients with no prior cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) using a multistate modeling framework. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data on 2600 patients with DLBCL diagnosed between 2000 and 2018 and had received chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy were obtained from a population-wide electronic health database of Hong Kong. We used the Markov illness-death model to quantify the impact of doxorubicin and various risk factors (therapeutic exposure, demographic, comorbidities, cardiovascular risk factors, and lifestyle factors which included smoking) on the clinical course of DLBCL (transitions into incident CVD, lymphoma death, and other causes of death). RESULTS: A total of 613 (23.6%) and 230 (8.8%) of 2600 subjects died of lymphoma and developed incident CVD, respectively. Median follow-up was 7.0 years (interquartile range 3.8-10.8 years). Older ages [hazard ratio (HR) for >75 versus ≤60 years 1.88; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.82 and HR for 61-75 versus ≤60 years 1.60; 95% CI 1.12-2.30], hypertension (HR 4.92; 95% CI 2.61-9.26), diabetes (HR 1.43; 95% CI 1.09-1.87), and baseline use of aspirin (HR 5.30; 95% CI 3.93-7.16) were associated with an increased risk of incident CVD. In a subgroup of anticipated higher-risk patients (aged 61-75 years, smoked, had diabetes, and received doxorubicin), we found that they remained on average 7.9 (95% CI 7.2-8.8) years in the DLBCL state and 0.1 (95% CI 0.0-0.4) years in the CVD state, if they could be followed up for 10 years. The brief time in the CVD state is consistent with the high chance of death in patients who developed CVD. Other causes of death have overtaken DLBCL-related death after about 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: In this Asian population-based cohort, we found that incident CVDs can occur soon after DLBCL treatment and continued to occur throughout survivorship. Clinicians are advised to balance the risks and benefits of treatment choices to minimize the risk of CVD

The judicious use of stereotactic radiosurgery and hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy in the management of large brain metastases.

Brain metastases are the most common intracranial malignant tumor in adults and are a cause of significant morbidity and mortality for cancer patients. Large brain metastases, defined as tumors with a maximum dimension >2 cm, present a unique clinical challenge for the delivery of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) as patients often present with neurologic symptoms that require expeditious treatment that must also be balanced against the potential consequences of surgery and radiation therapy—namely, leptomeningeal disease (LMD) and radionecrosis (RN). Hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (HSRT) and pre-operative SRS have emerged as novel treatment techniques to help improve local control rates and reduce rates of RN and LMD for this patient population commonly managed with post-operative SRS. Recent literature suggests that pre-operative SRS can potentially half the risk of LMD compared to post-operative SRS and that HSRT can improve risk of RN to less than 10% while improving local control when meeting the appropriate goals for biologically effective dose (BED) and dose-volume constraints. We recommend a 3-or 5-fraction regimen in lieu of SRS delivering 15 Gy or less for large metastases or resection cavities. We provide a table comparing the BED of commonly used SRS and HSRT regimens, and provide an algorithm to help guide the management of these challenging clinical scenarios