MOPP chemotherapy plus irradiation for Hodgkin's disease, stages IA to IIIB. Long-term results of the prospective trial H72 (1972-1976, 334 patients)

From April 1972 to December 1976, 334 patients with Hodgkin's disease, CS IA-IIIB, were prospectively treated with combined chemotherapy and radiation. The 166 stages IA and II2A were clinically staged only; the 168 other patients were randomized to clinical or pathological staging. All patients received 3 or 6 cycles of MOPP followed by Mantle field with or without mediastinal irradiation and/or inverted Y or lumbo-aortic field according to initial stage, presentation and protocol. At completion of therapy, 317 patients were in complete remission. Twenty-six patients relapsed and 43 died including 5 with leukemia and 6 with infection. Overall 12-year survival and relapse-free rates are 86.6 +/- 3.08 per cent and 91.5 +/- 3.2 per cent respectively (IA: 95.3 and 95.3 per cent; IIA: 87.8 and 92.1 per cent; IIIA: 83.3 and 100 per cent; IB, IIB: 81.7 and 89.2 per cent; IIIB: 67.8 and 73.7 per cent). The randomized comparison between clinical staging plus 6 cycles of MOPP and laparotomy staging plus 3 cycles of MOPP in final stage II3+A, IB, IIB patients showed no significant 12-year survival differences (90.8 versus 85.6 per cent). With this combined modality treatment policy, high survival rates are obtained using only 3 cycles of MOPP and radiotherapy in CS IA, II2A and in PS II3+, IB, IIB. Laparotomy staging may be unnecessary if 6 cycles of MOPP are employed before irradiation in CS IIA, IB, IIB disease and if 3 cycles of MOPP are followed by irradiation in CSIA and II2A disease. Mediastinal irradiation can be avoided in patients with supradiaphragmatic disease without mediastinal involvement.     

Subdiaphragmatic Hodgkin's disease: laparotomy and treatment results in 49 patients

The clinical records of 1,616 patients with previously untreated Hodgkin's disease were reviewed. Forty-nine of these patients (3%) presented with disease limited to sites below the diaphragm and underwent laparotomy as part of their staging evaluation. The clinical and histological characteristics of this group of patients with subdiaphragmatic Hodgkin's disease are compared with those who presented with supradiaphragmatic disease. Splenectomy in 47 patients revealed splenic involvement in 16 (39%), and bulky splenic involvement (more than five gross nodules) in ten (24%). The final pathological stage (PS) distribution was PS I = 8, PS II = 37, PS IV = 4. No clinical stage (CS) IA patients and only two of 20 patients with negative paraaortic nodes on lymphogram had splenic involvement in contrast to eight of nine CS IIB patients. Freedom from relapse and survival were similar to patients with equivalent stage supradiaphragmatic disease. Splenic involvement and bulky splenic involvement were associated with a significantly decreased survival. Twelve out of 44 PS IA to IIB patients relapsed. In eight of these 12 patients, relapse was limited to sites above the diaphragm and another two patients relapsed both above and below the diaphragm. Patients who received total lymphoid irradiation were less likely to relapse above the diaphragm than patients who received no supradiaphragmatic irradiation. We recommend that CS IA and IIA patients with subdiaphragmatic disease undergo staging laparotomy and receive supradiaphragmatic irradiation as part of their treatment. Laparotomy may not be necessary for CS IIB patients who are at high risk for splenic disease if chemotherapy is planned as part of their treatment program.     

The relevance of a staging laparotomy for Hodgkin's disease in India.

A retrospective analysis of 328 cases of Hodgkin's Disease (HD) subjected to a staging laparotomy at the Tata Memorial Hospital, Bombay, India, from 1974 to 1986 was undertaken to assess its relevance to our setup. Eighty percent of the patients were from clinical stages (CS) I and II, 38% with lymphocyte predominance (LP), and 41% with mixed cellularity (MC) histologies. Staging laparotomy was positive in 60% cases overall, including 50% from CS IA and IIA, 68% from CS IB and IIB, and 53% and 67%, respectively, from LP and MC histologies. Splenic involvement was seen in 54% cases. Operative complications were encountered in 2% of cases and deaths in two cases only. In view of the high propensity for abdominal spread, only selected CS IA and IIA cases would merit a staging laparotomy within which, nearly 50% cases with a negative yield could be offered radical segmental irradiation alone for cure. The majority of our patients would, however, require combination therapy.     

Pathologic stage I and II Hodgkin's disease, 1968--1975: relapse and results of retreatment.

Sixty-seven previously untreated patients with Hodgkin's disease, pathologic stages I and II, seen during a 7-year period were evaluted with respect to initial staging and treatment, as well as relapse and retreatment results. The initial treatment consisted of radiation therapy (RT) to an involved field (IF) or an extended field (EF) for patients with stages IA and IIA, or RT and, in recent cases, combination chemotherapy [cyclophosphamide, Oncovin, procarbazine, and prednisone (COPP)] for patients with stages IB and IIB. Nineteen of the 67 patients relapsed (28%), including 11 of 56 patients with stages IA and IIA (20%) and 8 of 11 patients with stages IB and IIB (73%). Seventeen of the 19 relapses occurred within 24 months after completion of the initial therapy (89%). The relapse-free survival at 5 years was 75% for the A patients and 25% for the B patients. The actuarial survival of stage IA and stage IIA patients at 5 years was 91%; there was no significant difference between patients treated initially with either IF or EF. The actuarial survival at 5 years for the patients with stages IB and IIB was 88%, as most responded to a second program of induction therapy. No correlation could be found between the pattern of relapse and the initial pathologic stage or the mode of treatment.     

Hodgkin's disease stage I and II. A comparison between two different treatment policies.

A retrospective analysis was performed on 145 patients with Stage I and II Hodgkin's disease treated over an 11-year period. Sixty-two patients (Group I) received a mantle field without systematic irradiation of the para-aortic lymph nodes. Eight-three patients (Group II) received radiotherapy according to the folowing policy: all Stage IB and IIB and all mixed cellularity and lymphocytic depletion types received total nodal irradiation while stage IA and IIA nodular sclerosing and lymphocytic predominance cases received irradiation to a mantle field and to the para-aortic lymph nodes. The characteristics of the two groups were roughly comparable in age range, sex, staging, histopathologic subtypes and total irradiation doses. All patients had lymphangiograms although not all underwent staging laparotomies. The staging laparotomy did not appear to have an influence within each group. The extent of irradiation did significantly affect both the incidence of further manifestation of disease as well as survival rates. The frequency of lymph node extension, organ extension and local recurrence for Group I was 24%, 14%, and 3%, while for Group II it was 4%, 6%, and 6%, respectively. The seven-year absolute survival rate for Group I was 57% while for Group II it was 93%.     

Results of a prospective trial of mantle irradiation alone for selected patients with early-stage Hodgkin's disease.

PURPOSE: To determine the efficacy of mantle radiation therapy alone in selected patients with early-stage Hodgkin's disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between October 1988 and June 2000, 87 selected patients with pathologic stage (PS) IA to IIA or clinical stage (CS) IA Hodgkin's disease were entered onto a single-arm prospective trial of treatment with mantle irradiation alone. Eighty-three of 87 patients had > or = 1 year of follow-up after completion of mantle irradiation and were included for analysis in this study. Thirty-seven patients had PS IA, 40 had PS IIA, and six had CS IA disease. Histologic distribution was as follows: nodular sclerosis (n = 64), lymphocyte predominant (n = 15), mixed cellularity (n = 3), and unclassified (n = 1). Median follow-up time was 61 months. RESULTS: The 5-year actuarial rates of freedom from treatment failure (FFTF) and overall survival were 86% and 100%, respectively. Eleven of 83 patients relapsed at a median time of 27 months. Nine of the 11 relapses contained at least a component below the diaphragm. All 11 patients who developed recurrent disease were alive without evidence of Hodgkin's disease at the time of last follow-up. The 5-year FFTF in the 43 stage I patients was 92% compared with 78% in the 40 stage II patients (P =.04). Significant differences in FFTF were not seen by histology (P =.26) or by European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer H-5F eligibility (P =.25). CONCLUSION: Mantle irradiation alone in selected patients with early-stage Hodgkin's disease is associated with disease control rates comparable to those seen with extended field irradiation. The FFTF is especially favorable among stage I patients.     

Are pelvic irradiation and routine staging laparotomy necessary in clinically staged IA and IIA Hodgkin's disease?

Thirty-nine patients with clinically staged IA and IIA Hodgkin's disease were treated with mantle plus paraaortic/splenic irradiation between 1968 and 1975. All patients had supradiaphragmatic presentations, and none had staging laparotomies. With a follow-up time of 1 to 9 years, mean 4.3 years, the overall relapse-free survival is 92% (100% for stage IA and 89% for stage IIA). The absolute relapse-free 5-year survival is 91% There were no pelvic recurrences. These data show that routine staging laparotomy and pelvic irradiation are not indicated for clinically staged IA and IIA Hodgkin's disease with supradiaphragmatic presentation. The criteria for staging laparotomy in early-stage Hodgkin's disease are discussed.     

The management of localized, infradiaphragmatic Hodgkin's disease: experience of a rare clinical presentation at St Bartholomew's Hospital

Between 1969 and 1982, 23 previously untreated patients with Hodgkin's disease (HD) confined to infradiaphragmatic sites were treated at St Bartholomew's Hospital. The distinguishing clinical characteristics of the patient population were a male: female ratio of 20:3. The mean age was 39 years, which was significantly older (P less than 0.05) than the mean age of patients with supradiaphragmatic HD (32 years) referred during the same period. Sixteen patients underwent formal pathological staging while one additional patient underwent a diagnostic laparotomy without splenectomy. The final pre-treatment stages were PS IA: 5; PS IIA: 11; CS IIA: 1; PS IIB: 1; CS IIB 5. Splenic involvement correlated closely with the number of nodal sites involved, being detected in 1/7 patients with one site only compared with 8/9 with more (P less than 0.001). Complete remission (CR) was achieved in 21 (91 per cent) patients: 12/12 following 'inverted Y' radiotherapy (RT) and 9/11 following combination chemotherapy. Twenty patients remain alive and 18 continue without recurrence of HD between 15 months and 12 years. All patients who failed to enter CR or who relapsed had presented with three or more sites of involvement or with constitutional ('B') symptoms. These results confirm the generally good prognosis of this uncommon presentation of HD and also suggest that prognosis is determined by the bulk of disease rather than its precise anatomical localization, provided that appropriate therapy is administered.     

Prognosis of 6644 resected non-small cell lung cancers in Japan: a Japanese lung cancer registry study

For the scheduled future revision of the TNM staging system for lung cancer, it is important that the present 1997 version be evaluated in a large population. In 2001, the Japanese Joint Committee of Lung Cancer Registry sent a questionnaire to 320 Japanese institutions regarding the prognosis and clinicopathological profiles of patients who underwent the resection for primary lung neoplasms in 1994. We compiled the data for 7408 patients from 303 institutions (94.7%). Among these, 6644 patients with non-small cell histology were studied in terms of prognosis. The 5-year survival rate of the entire group was 52.6%. The 5-year survival rates by clinical (c-) stage were as follows: 72.1% for IA (n = 2423), 49.9% for IB (n = 1542), 48.7% for IIA (n = 150), 40.6% for IIB (n = 746), 35.8% for IIIA (n = 1270), 28.0% for IIIB (n = 366) and 20.8% for IV (n = 147). The difference in prognosis between neighboring stages was significant except for between IB and IIA and between IIIB and IV. The 5-year survival rates by pathological (p-) stage were as follows: 79.5% for IA (n = 2009), 60.1% for IB (n = 1418), 59.9% for IIA (n = 232), 42.2% for IIB (n = 757), 29.8% for IIIA (n = 1250), 19.3% for IIIB (n = 719) and 20.0% for IV (n = 259). The difference in prognosis between neighboring stages was significant except for between IB and IIA and between IIIB and IV. The survival curves of stages IB and IIA were almost superimposed in both c- and p-settings. These findings indicated that the present stages IB and IIA should be merged into the same stage category. Otherwise, the present TNM staging system seemed to well characterize the stage-specific prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer. The future revision should focus on the subdivision of stages I and II.     

Value of computerized axial tomography in cervical cancer

Results of preoperative abdominopelvic computerized axial tomography were compared with operative findings in 58 patients undergoing laparotomy for cervical cancer. Patients with stages IA, IB, IIA, IIB, IIIB, and recurrent carcinoma of the cervix were included. The abdominopelvic contents were divided into retroperitoneal, intraperitoneal-abdomen and intraperitoneal-pelvic compartments for purposes of evaluation. The overall sensitivity was 47.6% and the overall specificity was 96.4%. The highest sensitivity was associated with intraperitoneal-pelvic findings while the lowest sensitivity was associated with pelvic lymphadenopathy. The highest false positive results were associated with parametrial involvement. Computerized axial tomography is probably not cost effective in stage IB or IIA disease. It may be cost effective in stage IIB or greater as well as in recurrent cervical cancer. In the event a positive finding can be confirmed by needle aspiration and cytology, a staging procedure or exenteration attempt can be avoided.     

Carcinoma of the uterine cervix treated by irradiation alone. Results of treatment at the National Cancer Center, Tokyo

Six hundred and twelve patients with previously untreated invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix were treated by irradiation alone at the National Cancer Hospital from 1972 to 1983. The number of patients was 7, 39, 43, 127, 15, 319, 28 and 34 in stages IA, IB, IIA, IIB, IIIA, IIIB, IVA and IVB respectively. Low-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation with or without external irradiation was used in 383 patients, high-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation with or without external irradiation in 130, external irradiation alone in 98, and external irradiation combined with radon-222 seed implantation in one patient. Five-year-survival rates were 85, 65, 57, 41, 14 11% for stages IB, IIA, IIB, IIIB, IVA, and IVB respectively. The rate of complications was rather high in the present series, and so we have been investigating whether it is possible to reduce the dose. Low-dose-rate intracavitary irradiation has been replaced by high-dose-rate irradiation by using a remotely controlled afterloading system.     

Distant metastases after irradiation alone in carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

This is a retrospective analysis of 1211 patients with invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix treated with irradiation alone from 1959 through 1986, of whom 322 developed distant metastases during the course of the disease. The 10-year actuarial incidence of distant metastases was 3% in Stage IA (34 patients), 16% in Stage IB (384 patients), 31% in Stage IIA (128 patients), 26% in Stage IIB (353 patients), 39% in Stage III (292 patients), and 75% in Stage IVA (20 patients). A multivariate analysis of factors influencing the incidence of distant metastases showed clinical stage, endometrial extension noted by dilatation and curettage (D&C) prior to therapy, and pelvic tumor control within each stage to be significant indicators of distant dissemination; histology, volume of disease, and age of patient were not significant. The frequency of metastases in all stages except IVA was greater when endometrial tumor extension was detected by D & C before to definitive irradiation (Stage IB, 28%; Stage IIA, 48%; Stage IIB, 42%; Stage III, 72%; and Stage IVA, 75%). In contrast, with normal D & C findings, the incidence of distant metastases was 15% in Stage IB, 29% in Stage IIA, 25% in Stage IIB, 45% in Stage III, and 84% in Stage IVA. The incidence of metastases in patients with pelvic tumor control was 11% in Stage IB, 22% in Stage IIA, 21% in Stage IIB, 34% in Stage III, and 50% in Stage IVA; in contrast, the corresponding incidence in patients failing in the pelvis was 76% in Stage IB, 88% in Stage IIA, 62% in Stage IIB, 87% in Stage III, and 74% in Stage IVA. The frequency of metastases per histology was comparable in squamous cell carcinoma and other histologic types. The incidence of metastases to other organs was 56%: Most frequent sites were lung, abdominal cavity, liver, and gastrointestinal tract. The incidence of clinically apparent lymph node involvement was 22%, predominantly to paraaortic, supraclavicular, and inguinal nodes. Bone metastases occurred in 16% of the patients, most commonly to the lumbar and thoracic spine. Despite aggressive local therapy with excellent local control, the incidence of distant metastases in patients with invasive carcinoma of the uterine cervix is high. The management of these patients and their response to salvage therapy are discussed. The need for effective adjuvant systemic therapy in the management of patients with invasive carcinoma of the cervix is also discussed.     

The relevance of the revised version of the international lung cancer staging system for non-small-cell lung cancer treated with radiotherapy

In 1997, the International Union Against Cancer (UICC) introduced a new version of staging for lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to determine the prognostic value of the new UICC staging (1997) among patients with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with radiotherapy. The status of a total of 1354 inoperable patients postintrathoracic irradiation for NSCLC was retrospectively analyzed. Restaging was performed according to the staging system of the UICC 1997. The median survival (MS) among patients with stage I disease was 12.4 months. In the case of stage IA disease, the MS was 17.6 months, which was significantly better compared to the 11.2 months observed among patients with stage IB disease (P = 0.002). The MS among patients with clinical T2 N1 M0 disease (stage IIB) was 8.0 months. The MS among those with clinical T3 N0 M0 disease (stage IIB) was 8.6 months, which was not statistically different from the group of patients with stage IIIA disease, who had an MS of 7.6 months. The MS among patients with stage IIIB disease was 6.5 months, and among patients with stage IV disease, MS was 4.0 months. It was concluded that in patients with inoperable NSCLC treated with radiotherapy, the distinction between stages IA and IB disease in the new staging system is clinically relevant. There was no significant difference in survival between patients with stage IIB and IIIA disease. The results clearly show that the prognostic significance of a staging system mainly based on surgically treated patients should be analyzed separately before it can be used among patients treated with nonsurgical modalities.     

Prognostic assessment after surgical resection for non-small cell lung cancer: experiences in 2083 patients

The importance of the TNM staging system for patient management, clinical research and communicating information about lung cancer is of international importance. Modifications of the TNM classification system is scheduled for the near future. A retrospective review of 2376 patients with primary non-small cell lung cancer treated in a monocentric institution between 1996 and 2005 was performed. The overall 5-year survival rate was 46.8%. A total of 2083 patients had complete resections with a 5-year survival of 50.7%. After complete resection the 5-year survival rates by pathological stage of the disease were as follows: 68.5% for IA, 66.6% for IB, 55.3% for IIA, 49.0% for IIB, 35.8% for IIIA, 35.4% for IIIB, and not defined (3-year survival: 33.1%) for IV. The difference in prognosis between stage IIB and IIIA was significant (p=0.001) there was no significant difference between IA and IB, between IB and IIA, between IIA and IIB, between IIIA and IIIB, or between IIIB and IV. In stage IV there was a significant difference in survival between patients with pulmonary metastases or distant extrapulmonary metastases (p=0.001). In multivariate analysis, we also found gender and histology to be independent significant prognostic factors for survival. Multiple factors influence the long-term survival of patients with non-small cell lung cancer after surgical resection. The present stage related prognosis seems to characterize patient prognosis and outcome reliable. For further data review there should be a focus on stage IV disease.     

Validation of clinical AJCC/UICC TNM staging system for hepatocellular carcinoma: analysis of 5,613 cases from a medical center in southern Taiwan

This study was aimed to validate the 5th and 6th editions of tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) system for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and attempted to improve prognostic stratification by modifying the 6th edition according to vascular invasion and tumor size. From 1986 to 2002, a total of 5,613 HCC cases from Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in southern Taiwan were enrolled. The 6th edition was modified by dividing stage I into stages IA (single tumor, < or =2cm) and IB (single tumor, >2cm), and by dividing stage II into IIA (multiple tumors, none >5cm) and IIB (tumor with segmental macro vascular invasion). The Akaike information criteria (AIC), within a Cox proportional hazard regression model were used; lower AIC value indicated a better discriminatory ability for staging system. The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 7-year overall survival rates were 45.6, 25.9, 17.9, and 13.4%, respectively. Significant differences in survival curve existed in the 5th, 6th, and modified 6th edition TNM systems. For the modified 6th edition TNM, survival differed significantly between stages IA and IB, and between stage IIA and IIB. The AIC values of 5th (72,328), 6th (72,188), modified 6th (71,991) edition TNM system were decreasing. This investigation demonstrated better prognostic stratifications for the 6th edition than the 5th edition TNM staging system. Moreover, the modified 6th edition staging system demonstrated better prognostic prediction than the former two. Pretreatment staging and simple classification of current modified 6th edition TNM staging can be applied to all HCC patients and are clinically useful.     

Improved survival in hodgkin's disease.

All patients below the age of 66 whose Hodgkin's disease was treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital between July 1, 1965 and June 30, 1973 were analyzed. The patients were divided into an early group seen before November 1, 1968 and a later group seen after that date. Survival and survival without recurrence were calculated by the actuarial method of Berkson and Gage, and compared with figures obtained from a historical series seen at this institution between 1948 and 1964. In the most recent period (1969-1973), 87% of patients with all stages of Hodgkin's disease were alive five years after diagnosis, a remarkable improvement over the 65% survival of the 1965-1968 group and the 34% survival of the historical series. The excellent survival of the recent group was a result of improved management of patients with advanced disease (Stages III and IV), most plausibly attributed to better appreciation of the extent of disease by surgical staging and to the shift from total nodal irradiation to combination chemotherapy for initial treatment of these patients. Recurrence after irradiation was extremely uncommon in patients in Stage IA and IIA (lymphangiogram-negative, asymptomatic) subjected to aging laparotomy, while similarly staged and irradiated patients in Stages IB and IIB (lymphangiogram-negative, symptomatic) did much less well. Except for the surgically staged patients in Stages IA and IIA, the continuing high relapse rate indicates that five-year survival, even when relapse-free, is not synonymous with cure, and emphasizes the need for caution in predicting the ultimate cure rate with current therapy.     

Radiation therapy in the management of bulky mediastinal Hodgkin's disease

From July 1981 to July 1985, 20 patients with bulky mediastinal Hodgkin's Disease (maximum mediastinal width divided by the maximum intrathoracic diameter for a mediastinal mass ratio (MMR) greater than 0.33 were treated at Stanford University with definitive radiation therapy alone. The majority of these patients were selected to receive radiation therapy because they had the more favorable characteristics of minimal extralymphatic involvement, mediastinal masses that were superior and central in location, and a MMR less than or equal to 0.50. All 20 patients were laparotomy staged, and 17 received some radiation to the mantle before laparotomy. Seventeen patients had pathologic stage (PS) II disease (13 PS IIA, 4 PS IIB), two had PS IIISA, and one had PS IB. Eleven patients (55%) had extralymphatic involvement. All patients were irradiated to the mantle field using a shrinking field technique (mediastinal dose, 4400 to 5500 cGy, mean 4990 cGy). After completion of the mantle, all patients with good clinical responses received infradiaphragmatic radiation. Treatment complications included two cases of mild radiation pneumonitis, five of hypothyroidism, five of localized Herpes zoster, one of amenorrhea, one of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and one of sepsis. Four patients relapsed. All had an intrathoracic component to their failure. All four patients were salvaged with MOP(P) chemotherapy and are currently alive and free of disease. For the entire group, the actuarial freedom from relapse is 80% at 7 years and the survival is 100%. Median follow-up time is 67 months. The authors conclude that radiation therapy alone is effective in the management of selected patients with Hodgkin's disease who have extensive mediastinal involvement, even when the MMR exceeds 1/3.     

Early clinical stages (CS1, CS1Mk+ and CS2A) of non-seminomatous testis cancer. Value of pre- and post-orchiectomy serum tumor marker information in prediction of retroperitoneal lymph node metastases. Swedish-Norwegian Testicular Cancer Project (SWENOTECA).

During a 5-year period (1981-86) 588 consecutive patients with nonseminatous germ cell tumors of the testis were included into a prospective Swedish-Norwegian multicenter study (SWENOTECA) and clinically staged according to the Royal Marsden system. A total of 370 patients (63%) had early clinical stages (CS) of disease; 295 (50%) had CS1, 32 (5%) had CS1Mk+ (CS1 with pathological serum tumor marker patterns after orchiectomy) and 43 (7%) had CS2A disease. Pathological staging with retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) of the retroperitoneum was performed in 345 (93%) of the early CS patients and 128 (37%) had pathological stage 2 (PS2) disease; 27% of the CS1, 100% of the CS1Mk+ and 66% of the CS2A patients. The overall clinical staging accuracy was 75%. All the 40 patients with pathological serum AFP and/or HCG patterns before RPLND had PS2 disease, compared to 81/282 (29%) of patients with normal marker patterns. The PS2 patients with pathological marker patterns had significantly more and larger retroperitoneal metastases than those with normal AFP and HCG values. Elevated pre-orchiectomy AFP level indicated significantly reduced risk of PS2 disease in CS1 patients, but this effect became non-significant if the CS1Mk+ and CS2A cases were included into univariate or multivariate analyses. We suggest that the 'good risk' effect of pre-orchiectomy AFP elevation for CS1 cases may be caused by a selection mechanism during the clinical staging process.     

Validation of the AJCC 8th lung cancer staging system among patients with small cell lung cancer

Background

The current study tried to validate the prognostic significance of the 8th American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system among small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients recorded within the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database.

Patients and methods

SEER database (2004–2014) has been queried through SEER*Stat program, and both AJCC 7th and 8th edition stages were constructed. Cancer-specific and overall survival analyses according to both editions were performed through Kaplan–Meier analysis. The cause-specific Cox regression hazard for both AJCC editions (adjusted for age, gender, race, and surgery) was calculated and pair-wise comparisons of hazard ratios were conducted.

Results

A total of 39,286 patients with SCLC were recruited in the period from 2004 to 2014. For overall and cancer-specific survival assessment, according to the AJCC 7th edition, P values for all pair-wise comparisons among different stages were significant (<0.0001) except for the comparisons between stage IB vs. stage IIA, and stage IIB vs. stage IIIA. For overall survival assessment, according to AJCC 8th, P values for all pair-wise comparisons were significant (<0.05) except for IA2 vs. IA3, IA3 vs. IB, IB vs. IIA, IIA vs. IIB, and IIIB vs. IIIC. For cancer-specific survival, according to AJCC 8th, P values for all pair-wise comparisons among different stages were significant (<0.05) except IA1 vs. IA2, IA2 vs. IA3, and IIA vs. IIB. When conducting pair-wise hazard ratio comparisons among different AJCC stages (for both editions), similar findings to the Kaplan–Meier analyses were reported.

Conclusion

While there is a clear improvement for both the AJCC 7th and 8th systems compared to the old veterans’ administration system, there is a modest improvement for the 8th compared to the 7th system among patients with SCLC.

     

High-dose-rate afterloading brachytherapy in carcinoma of the cervix: an experience of 1992 patients

Purpose: To report the results of radiation therapy in carcinoma of the cervix treated by external irradiation and high-dose-rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy.

Methods and Materials: This is a retrospective analysis of 2063 patients with histologically proven carcinoma of the cervix treated by external irradiation and HDR intracavitary brachytherapy between March 1985–December 1991. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival and disease-free survival analysis. Late complications in the bowel and bladder were calculated actuarially.

Results: There were 71 patients who did not complete the course of irradiation so only 1992 patients were retrospectively analyzed for survival. There were 2 patients (0.1%) in Stage IA, 211 (10.2%) Stage IB, 225 (10.9%) in Stage IIA, 902 (43.7%) in Stage IIB, 14 (0.7%) in Stage IIIA, 675 (32.7%) in Stage IIIB, 16 (0.8%) in Stage IVA, and 16 (0.8%) in Stage IVB. The median follow-up time was 96 months. The actuarial 5-year disease-free survival rate was 79.5%, 70.0%, 59.4%, 46.1%, 32.3%, 7.8%, and 23.1% for Stage IB, IIA, IIB, IIIA, IIIB, IVA, and IVB respectively. The actuarial 5-year disease-free survival rate for Stage IB₁ and IB₂ squamous cell carcinoma was 88.7% and 67.0%. The actuarial 5-year overall survival rate was 86.3%, 81.1%, 73.0%, 50.3%, 47.8%, 7.8%, and 30.8% for Stage IB, IIA, IIB, IIIA, IIIB, IVA, and IVB respectively. Pattern of failure revealed 20.8% local recurrence, 18.7% distant metastases, and 4% in both. The late complication rate Grade 3 and 4 (RTOG) for bowel and bladder combined was 7.0% with 1.9% Grade 4.

Conclusion: HDR brachytherapy used in this series produced pelvic control and survival rates comparable to other LDR series.