Durvalumab impacts progression-free survival while high-dose radiation >66 Gy improves local control without excess toxicity in unresectable NSCLC stage III: Real-world data from the Austrian radio-oncological lung cancer study association registry (ALLSTAR).

Background: Chemo-radioimmunotherapy with total radiation doses of 60-66 Gy in 2 Gy fractions is the standard of care for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) UICC stage III. The Austrian radio-oncological lung cancer study association registry (ALLSTAR) is a prospective multicentre registry intended to document clinical practice at the beginning of the Durvalumab era.

Patients And Methods: Patients were eligible if they had pathologically verified unresectable NSCLC stage III with a curative treatment option.

KPS/LDH index: a simple tool for identifying patients with metastatic melanoma who are unlikely to benefit from palliative whole brain radiotherapy.

Purpose: Low Karnofsky performance status (KPS) and elevated lactate dehydrogenases (LDHs) as a surrogate marker for tumor load and cell turnover may depict patients with a very short life expectancy. To validate this finding and compare it to other indices, namely, the recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) and diagnosis-specific graded prognostic assessment (DS-GPA), a multicenter analysis was undertaken.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of 234 metastatic melanoma patients uniformly treated with palliative whole brain radiotherapy (WBRT) was done.

[Beneficial outcomes of an interdisciplinary psychoeducative group intervention for patients with malignant gliomas and their relatives].

Background: To assess the impact of psychoeducative group interventions on patients with high-grade glioma (glioblastoma, mixed glioma, and astrocytoma) and their relatives.

Methods: A total of one hundred and four patients and relatives underwent group interventions between September 2007 and May 2010 and were coached by a psychologist and a physician in the context of an interdisciplinary meeting. Questionnaires were distributed after every meeting.