ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate whether sarcopenia before concurrent chemoradiotherapy is prone to grade≥3 acute adverse reactions (AAR) and shorten survival in patients with advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods Data of advanced patients with pathologically diagnosed ESCC and CCRT (FP regimen) from August 2018 to July 2022 were reviewed retrospectively.Skeletal muscle mass and body composition were measured using pre-treatment CT images, and patients were divided into sarcopenia and non-sarcopenia groups.Grade≥3 AAR was diagnosed based on CTCAE5.0 and acute radiation injury criteria of the US RTOG.Risk factors for developing grade≥3 AAR were analyzed, and survival rates were calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. Results Among 132 patients with ESCC (87 in the sarcopenia group and 45 in the non-sarcopenia group), 23(17.4%) experienced grade≥3 AAR.In multivariate regression analysis, independent risk factors for grade ≥3 AAR included the following: sarcopenia (OR: 6.034, 95%CI: 1.206-30.190, P=0.029), decreased SMD (OR: 0.693, 95%CI: 0.492-0.976, P=0.036), decreased SMI (OR: 0.841, 95%CI: 0.721-0.982, P=0.028), and increased FMI (OR: 2.433, 95%CI: 1.194-4.958;P=0.014).The OS rates were 16.01 months (95%CI: 14.89-17.13) in the sarcopenia group and 19.27 months (95%CI: 14.45-24.09) in the non-sarcopenia group (χ2=5.326, P=0.021) as well as 14.86 months (95%CI: 11.30-18.42) for patients with grade≥3 AAR and 16.67 months (95%CI: 14.91-18.43) for patients with grade 0-2 AAR (χ2=5.47, P=0.019).Among patients with grade≥3 AAR, the OS rates were 12.13 months (95%CI: 10.15-14.11) in the sarcopenia group and 18.69 months (95%CI: 12.85-21.88) in the non-sarcopenia group (χ2=4.466, P=0.035). Conclusion Sarcopenia, decreased skeletal muscle density, and increased fat mass are important predictors of grade≥3 AAR.The OS of patients with sarcopenia and grade≥3 AAR may be reduced.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect of abolishing instructions to fast prior to contrast-enhanced CT on acute adverse reactions (AARs). METHODS: In our institution, we instructed patients to fast one meal before contrast-enhanced CT examinations. However, we abolished these instructions at the end of March 2019, and solid food intake was not restricted before contrast-enhanced CT after this date. The differences in the incidence of AARs before (December 2015-November 2018, n = 43,927) and after (April 2019-March 2020, n = 14,676) abolishing instructions to fast were compared. We allowed 4 months (December 2018-March 2019) for this policy change to fully permeate the CT referrals. The medical records of patients who vomited were retrospectively reviewed by one of the authors for notations of aspiration or aspiration pneumonia attributable to vomiting. RESULTS: The overall incidence of AARs before (1.60%, n = 705) and after abolition (1.40%, n = 205) did not change significantly. As the chemotoxic reactions, the incidence of nausea decreased significantly (0.31 to 0.18%, p = 0.006). The incidence of vomiting did not change (0.12 to 0.16%), and there were no cases of aspiration pneumonia attributable to vomiting during the study period. The incidence of severe hypersensitivity/allergy-like reactions did not change (0.06 to 0.05%). CONCLUSIONS: Abolishing instructions to fast decreased the incidence of nausea, but did not affect the incidence of vomiting. No cases of aspiration pneumonia attributable to vomiting were found. Our study confirmed that fasting is not required prior to contrast-enhanced CT.
ABSTRACT
Objective To comparatively analyze the acute adverse reactions of helical tomotherapy ( HT) and intensity-modulated radiation therapy ( IMRT) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma ( NPC) . Methods A total of 100 NPC patients treated with radiotherapy were selected and divided into the HT group ( n=50) and IMRT group ( n=50) . All patients were treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. The prescription dose of radiotherapy was DT 68.2-73.8 Gy/30-34F. The severity of acute adverse reactions of skin, oral mucosa, salivary glands and esophagus was evaluated with the established RTOG criteria. The differences between two groups were evaluated by paired t-test. Results The dose of organs at risk ( OARs) in the HT group was significantly lower than that in the IMRT group ( P<0.05) , whereas the dose of target area of PTVnx, PTVnd ( left) and PTVnd ( right) did not significantly differ between two groups ( all P>0.05) . In the HT group, the incidence rate of grade 0-3 acute adverse reactions in the skin, oral mucosa, salivary glands and esophagus were ( 14%, 68%, 18%, 0%) , ( 10%, 54%, 36%, 0%) , ( 0%, 74%, 26%, 0%) and ( 10%, 60%, 28%, 2%) , respectively. In the IMRT group, the corresponding results were ( 0%, 52%, 48%, 0%) , ( 0%, 58%, 42%, 0%) , ( 0%, 28%, 72%, 0%) and ( 0, 40%, 60%, 0%) , respectively. The severity of acute adverse reactions of skin, salivary glands and esophagus in the HT group was slighter than those in the IMRT group ( all P<0.05) , the acute adverse reactions in the oral mucosa were similar between two groups ( P>0.05) . In the HT group, the onset time of acute adverse reactions in the skin was later than that in the IMRT group ( P<0.05) , and the onset time of other adverse reactions was similar between two groups ( all P>0.05) . Conclusions Both HT and IMRT can meet the requirements of the dose distribution in the target area for NPC, whereas HT is superior to IMRT in terms of the protection of OARs protection, the severity and onset time of acute adverse reactions.
