Non-metastatic prostate cancer treated with exclusive radiotherapy: prognosis of patients according to lymph node radiologic or surgical assessment method. Multivariate retrospective analysis

PURPOSE: To compare retrospectively the outcome of localized prostate cancers treated by curative external radiotherapy in which the negative lymphatic status was either surgically or radiologically assessed. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From January 1986 to December 1995, 112 patients with localized prostate cancers were found to have no evidence of lymphatic disease in the pelvis. N0 status was assessed either surgically (61 patients, group pN-) or after a CT scan procedure (51 patients, group cN0). The treatment consisted of conventional external radiotherapy using a four-fields box technique to a total dose of 65 Gy. The pelvis was never irradiated. RESULTS: The two groups did not statistically differ according to age, PSA level, Gleason score, T stage and hormonal therapy. Actuarial NED survival rates were 80% and 60% at five and ten years respectively. At ten years, the actuarial NED survival rates were 78% and 34% in the pN- and cN0 groups respectively (p = 0.003). The multivariate analysis corroborated the positive impact of lymphatic dissection before radiotherapy on disease free survival of T1-T2 patients, but not for T3 stages. CONCLUSIONS: This retrospective study suggests the inability of CT scan to accurately evaluate the lymph node status in carcinoma of the prostate. Systematic ilio-obturator nodal dissection is strongly recommended in early stages before curative radiotherapy. Only pN-patients should be included in high dose conformal irradiation trials.     

Évolutions dans la prise en charge des métastases ganglionnaires cervicales sans cancer primitif retrouvé : doses et volumes cibles de la radiothérapie avec modulation d’intensité

The definition of nodal and/or mucosal target volumes for radiation therapy for lymphadenopathies of unknown primary is controversial. Target volumes may include all nodal areas bilaterraly and be pan-mucosal or unilateral, selective, including the sole oropharyngeal mucosa. This review presents current recommendations in light of changes in the TNM classification, Human papillomavirus status and therapeutic advances. We conducted a systematic review of the literature with the following keywords: lymphadenopathy; head and neck; unknown primary and radiation therapy. There are no direct comparative studies between unilateral or bilateral nodal irradiation or pan-mucosal and selective mucosal irradiation. Contralateral lymph node failure rates range from 0 to 6% after unilateral nodal irradiation and 0 and 31% after bilateral irradiation. Occurrence of a mucosal primary varies between 0 and 19.2%. Initial clinical presentation and Human papillomavirus status are critical to define mucosal target volumes. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy is recommended (rather than three-dimensional irradiation) to avoid toxicities. Systemic treatments have similar indications as for identified primary head and neck cancers. Failures do not appear superior in case of unilateral nodal irradiation but comparative studies are warranted due to major biases hampering direct comparisons. Human papillomavirus status should be incorporated into the therapeutic strategy and practice-changing TNM staging changes will need to be evaluated.     

Can we predict the cardiac benefit of deep inspiration breath hold for left breast and regional nodal irradiation?

PurposeDeep inspiration breath hold (DIBH) is used to decrease the dose of radiotherapy delivered to the heart. There is a need to define criteria to select patients with the potential to derive a real clinical benefit from DIBH treatment. Our study's main goal was to investigate whether two CT-scan cardiac anatomical parameters, cardiac contact distance in the parasagittal plane (CCDps) and lateral heart-to-chest distance (HCD), were predictive of unmet dosimetric cardiac constraints for left breast and regional nodal irradiation (RNI).Materials and methodsThis retrospective single-institution dosimetric study included 62 planning CT scans of women with left-sided breast cancer (BC) from 2016 to 2021. Two independent radiation oncologists measured HCD and CCDps twice to assess inter- and intra-observer reproducibility. Dosimetric constraints to be respected were defined, and dosimetric parameters of interest were collected for each patient.ResultsMean heart dose was 7.9 Gy. Inter-rater reproducibility between the two readers was considered excellent. The mean heart dose constraint < 8 Gy was not achieved in 25 patients (40%) and was achieved in 37 patients (60%). There was a significant correlation between mean heart dose and HCD (r_s = –0.25, P = 0.050) and between mean heart dose and CCDps (r_s = 0.25, P = 0.047). The correlation between HCD and CCDps and unmet cardiac dosimetric constraints was not statistically significant.ConclusionOur dosimetric analysis did not find that the cardiac anatomical parameters HCD and CCDps were predictive of unmet dosimetric cardiac constraints, nor that they were good predictors for cardiac exposure in left-sided BC radiotherapy comprising RNI.     

Lymph node positive head and neck carcinoma after curative radiochemotherapy: A long lasting debate on elective post-therapeutic neck dissections comes to a conclusion

There has been a long lasting debate, whether planned neck dissections after curative radio(chemo)therapy for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinomas offer some benefit in tumor control or survival. We did a thorough literature research on that topic. The results of several recently published studies are described, summarized, and reviewed. Patients with residual disease in clinical or radiographic examinations (CT or MRI scans) up to 3 months after completion of radiochemotherapy profit from neck dissections. In patients with an initial or delayed clinical complete remission after completion of radiochemotherapy, a neck dissection can be safely omitted. In conclusion, there is no longer evidence for a benefit of prophylactic post-radiochemotherapy neck dissections, but strong evidence for a therapeutic post-radiochemotherapy neck dissection in this group of patients.     

Critères de qualité en chirurgie carcinologique cervicofaciale

In patients’ management affected by head and neck cancers, surgery takes a major place with radiotherapy and chemotherapy. An updating of the surgical techniques available, and validated indications seems useful to harmonize the head and neck oncological surgery practices and so optimize its safety. A focus on the quality assurance in head and neck surgical oncology is proposed.     

Lymph node supraclavicular metastasis of thymic carcinoma: an inaugural and unusual feature of a rare disease

Among the epithelial tumours of the thymus, thymic carcinomas are rare, involving more aggressive locoregional behaviour and a poor prognosis. More than one-third of cases present lymph node metastasis during an evaluation of the extension of a primitive mediastinal tumour of thymic origin. The authors report an unusual case in a 46-year-old woman presenting a metastatic form. The diagnosis of epidermoid thymic carcinoma was based on the histopathological examination of a right supraclavicular lymph node, associated with an anterior radiological mediastinal tumoral syndrome, raising the delicate problem of its diagnosis and treatment.