Adjuvant treatments for gastric cancer: from practice guidelines to clinical practice.

BACKGROUND: For gastric cancers, the benefits of adjuvant radiochemotherapy and of perioperative chemotherapy have been demonstrated since 2001 and 2006 respectively. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diffusion of adjuvant treatments in a French population. METHODS: 334 incident gastric cancers UICC Stage IB, II, III or IVM0 resected for cure and recorded in the Burgundy digestive cancer registry were retrospectively included. Patients were classified as having received an effective adjuvant treatment if they had been treated by adjuvant radiochemotherapy since 2001 or perioperative chemotherapy since 2006. RESULTS: The proportion of patients treated with an effective adjuvant treatment increased from 21.8% (2001-2005) to 40.1% (2006-2009). Patients treated in 2006-2009 were twice as likely to receive effective adjuvant treatment as those treated during the period 2001-2005. During the 2004-2009 period, 62.4% of cases were presented in a multidisciplinary team meeting. These patients were almost three times more likely to receive effective adjuvant treatment than patients excluded from multidisciplinary team consultation. Age was a significant factor, independent of comorbidities. CONCLUSION: Administration of adjuvant treatment is still far from being considered a reference regimen in routine practice for R0 resected gastric cancer. The increase in multidisciplinary team meetings should improve the situation.

Exclusive image guided IMRT vs. radical prostatectomy followed by postoperative IMRT for localized prostate cancer: a matched-pair analysis based on risk-groups.

BACKGROUND: To investigate whether patients treated for a localized prostate cancer (PCa) require a radical prostatectomy followed by postoperative radiotherapy or exclusive radiotherapy, in the modern era of image guided IMRT. METHODS: 178 patients with PCa were referred for daily exclusive image guided IMRT (IG-IMRT) using an on-line 3D ultra-sound based system and 69 patients were referred for postoperative IMRT without image guidance after radical prostatectomy (RP + IMRT). Patients were matched in a 1:1 ratio according to their baseline risk group before any treatment. Late toxicity was scored using the CTV v3.0 scale. Biochemical failure was defined as a postoperative PSA ≤ 0.1 ng/mL followed by 1 consecutive rising PSA for the postoperative group of patients and by the Phoenix definition (nadir + 2 ng/mL) for the group of patients treated with exclusive radiotherapy. RESULTS: A total of 98 patients were matched (49:49). From the start of any treatment, the median follow-up was 56.6 months (CI 95% = [49.6-61.2], range [18.2-115.1]). No patient had late gastrointestinal grade ≥ 2 toxicity in the IG-IMRT group vs. 4% in the RP + IMRT group. Forty two percent of the patients in both groups had late grade ≥ 2 genitourinary toxicity. The 5-year FFF rates in the IG-IMRT group and in the RP + IMRT groups were 93.1% [80.0-97.8] and 76.5% [58.3-87.5], respectively (p = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with a localized PCa treated with IG-IMRT had better oncological outcome than patients treated with RP + IMRT. Further improvements in postoperative IMRT using image guidance and dose escalation are urgently needed.

Clinical impact of margin reduction on late toxicity and short-term biochemical control for patients treated with daily on-line image guided IMRT for prostate cancer.

To evaluate the impact of PTV reduction when delivering image-guided IMRT (IG-IMRT) for patients with prostate cancer. Between 2001 and 2007, 165 men were treated with daily IG-IMRT using a 3D ultrasound-based system. Median dose prescribed to the prostate was 78 Gy [74 Gy-78 Gy]. Patients were stratified regarding the CTV to the PTV margin: group A (n=87)=5mm or group B (n=78)=10mm. Late toxicity was scored using the CTC v3.0 scale. Biochemical progression-free survival (bPFS) was calculated using the Phoenix definition. Grade 2 genitourinary toxicity was 7.0% for group A and 6.6% for group B (p=1.00). Grade 2 gastrointestinal toxicity was 1.2% and 2.6% (p=0.38). With a median follow-up of 38.3 months [5.25-87.3], bPFS at 3 years was 92.5% [82.4%-96.9%] in group A and 94.3% [85.5%-97.8%] in group B (p=0.84). IG-IMRT yielded very low rates of late toxicity. Margin had impact neither on short-term bPFS nor late toxicity.