Definitive treatment of poor-risk patients with stage I lung cancer: a single institution experience.

PURPOSE: Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in both men and women. A substantial number of patients with early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are unfit for standard surgery due to cardiopulmonary dysfunction and/or other comorbidity. The appropriate management for this population has not been defined. METHODS: Retrospective analysis of patients with clinical stage I NSCLC judged to be unsuitable for lobectomy between 1996 and 2005. RESULTS: Ninety-six patients, representing 23% of all patients treated for clinical stage I NSCLC were included in this analysis. The median age was 73 years and most patients were female. Patients underwent limited resection (LR, n = 45), primary radiotherapy (RT, n = 39) or radiofrequency ablation (n = 12). With median follow-up of 30 months, 61 patients remain alive. Actuarial 3-year survival is 65% following LR and 60% after primary RT. Local tumor relapse and distant metastases were observed with approximate equal probability following either LR or RT. CONCLUSION: Medical inoperability does not necessarily correspond to poor survival in patients with early stage NSCLC. A nihilistic approach is not warranted towards this population, and prospective trials are needed to better define optimal treatment strategies.

Doses greater than 85 Gy and two isocenters in Gamma Knife surgery for trigeminal neuralgia: updated results.

OBJECT: The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of Gamma Knife surgery (GKS) in treating patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN). Preliminary results of this study were previously reported. The updated results are reported in this paper. METHODS: Ninety seven patients with TN refractory to medical or surgical management underwent GKS between September 1998 and October 2005. Fifteen patients had multiple sclerosis (MS). The radiation dose was escalated from 70 to 99 Gy. The Barrow Neurological Institute Pain Scale (BNIPS) was used to assess pain before and after GKS. Eighty-four patients were available for evaluation with a mean follow up of 8.9 months. The overall response and complete response rates were 70.2% and 36.9%, respectively. At 12 months, there was a greater improvement in BNIPS scores for patients who were treated with two isocenters compared with those treated with a single isocenter. The mean percentage of pain decrease was 56.26% compared with 11.53% (p < 0.001). Patients treated with two isocenters rather than one and patients receiving greater than 85 Gy compared with lower doses had a longer duration of response. Only nine patients (11%) had mild numbness attributable to the GKS. Five of the nine patients experienced complete resolution of facial numbness on follow up. Patients with MS have a shorter duration of response compared with those without MS (p = 0.35). CONCLUSIONS: These updated results show that GKS continues to be an effective therapy for TN. It appears there is an enhanced response with doses 85 Gy or more and with two isocenters without increased complications.

Radiotherapy for the clinically negative neck in supraglottic laryngeal cancer.

PURPOSE: The supraglottic larynx has rich lymphatic drainage, resulting in a high incidence of occult cervical metastases, and the optimal treatment of the clinically uninvolved neck in supraglottic laryngeal cancer remains controversial. Selected retrospective series report a greater than 20% regional failure after treatment by radiotherapy alone, and some investigators recommend routine prophylactic neck dissection. We report on our series of patients who received radiotherapy as sole treatment to the clinically negative neck, either to the bilateral neck for N0 disease or to the contralateral neck for ipsilateral lymphatic involvement. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 1971 and 1998, 150 patients with supraglottic laryngeal cancer received radiotherapy alone to the clinically negative neck. Fifty-two patients had ipsilateral lymph node metastases (N1 = 16, N2a = 12, N2b = 20, N3 = 4), and 98 patients had no clinical nodal involvement. The primary site (T1/T2 = 74, T3/T4 = 76) was treated with radiotherapy (N = 91) or laryngectomy plus radiotherapy (N = 59). Neck dissection was performed on the involved neck in 36/52 node-positive patients for either multiple involved nodes (N = 20) or size > 3 cm (N = 16). Radiotherapy was delivered in standard fractionation and field arrangement. The median dose to the clinically negative neck was 5000 cGy (range: 4860-6000 cGy). RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 48 months, the clinically negative neck was the first site of failure in 3.3% of patients. The contralateral neck remained disease free in all patients. Five failures occurred in the N0 neck, and the median time to recurrence was 12 months (range: 5-30 months). Salvage therapy was neck dissection for the N0 neck failures. The 5-year locoregional control, disease-specific survival, and overall survival were 69%, 74%, and 61%, respectively. DISCUSSION: Our data support the use of radiotherapy as a prophylactic treatment for the clinically negative neck. Tumor control in the clinically uninvolved cervical lymphatics is comparable to that in surgical series, suggesting that routine neck dissection may not be necessary. Prospective trials are necessary to further define the role of radiotherapy in this patient population.