Target volume for postoperative radiotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer: results from a prospective trial.

Background And Purpose: A previous prospective trial reported that three-dimensional conformal postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) for pN2 NSCLC patients using a limited clinical target volume (CTV) had a late morbidity rate and pulmonary function that did not differ from those observed in pN1 patients treated with surgery without PORT. The aim of this study was to assess locoregional control and localization of failure in patients treated with PORT.

Materials And Methods: The pattern of locoregional failure was evaluated retrospectively in 151 of 171 patients included in the PORT arm.

Neoadjuvant treatment for unresectable rectal cancer: an interim analysis of a multicentre randomized study.

Purpose: To present an interim analysis of the trial comparing two neoadjuvant therapies for unresectable rectal cancer.

Methods: Patients with fixed cT3 or cT4 or locally recurrent rectal cancer without distant metastases were randomized to either 5 × 5 Gy and 3 courses of FOLFOX4 (schedule I) or 50.4 Gy delivered in 28 fractions given simultaneously with 5-Fu, leucovorin and oxaliplatin (schedule II).

Point: short-course radiation therapy is preferable in the neoadjuvant treatment of rectal cancer.

There are 2 types of neoadjuvant radiation regimens accepted as standard for resectable rectal cancer: short-course (5 × 5 Gy) radiation therapy alone with immediate surgery and long-course combined chemoradiation therapy with delayed surgery. A Polish randomized study (n = 312) and an Australian randomized study (n = 326) compared these 2 schedules. Both trials showed a lower rate of early adverse effects using a short-course radiation regimen and no differences in long-term oncologic outcomes and late toxicity rates between groups.