Can serum markers be used to predict acute and late toxicity in patients with lung cancer? Analysis of RTOG 91-03.

Purpose: To identify factors that are predictive of satisfactory acute and long-term pulmonary tolerance of definitive irradiation and, conversely, factors that are predictive of excessive impairment of pulmonary functions. To determine if there is any correlation between early elevation of biochemical markers obtained in blood of irradiated patients and subsequent pulmonary abnormalities as detected by clinical findings, pulmonary function tests, and/or radiographic findings of pneumonitis/fibrosis.

Materials And Methods: This was a multi-institutional prospective trial sponsored by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group.

NATURAL HERITABILITIES: CAN THEY BE RELIABLY ESTIMATED IN THE LABORATORY?

The validity of the assumption, that laboratory estimates of heritabilities will tend to overestimate natural heritabilities, due to a reduction in environmental variability and thus the phenotypic variance of traits, is examined. One hundred sixty-five field estimates of narrow sense heritabilities derived from the literature are compared with 189 estimates from laboratory studies on wild, outbred animal populations derived from the data set of Mousseau and Roff. The results indicate that 84% of field heritabilities are significantly different from zero and that for morphological, behavioral, and life-history traits there are no significant differences between laboratory and field estimates of heritability.

Results of a randomized comparison of radiotherapy and bromodeoxyuridine with radiotherapy alone for brain metastases: report of RTOG trial 89-05.

Purpose: To determine if the addition of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdUrd) to radiotherapy prolongs survival when compared to radiotherapy alone in patients with brain metastases.

Methods And Materials: Seventy-two patients with brain metastases were randomized to 37.5 Gy in 15 fractions of 2.

A report of RTOG 8206: a phase III study of whether the addition of single dose hemibody irradiation to standard fractionated local field irradiation is more effective than local field irradiation alone in the treatment of symptomatic osseous metastases.

Hemibody irradiation (HBI) in a single exposure is an effective and safe technique for palliation of symptoms due to widespread bony metastases (RTOG 78-10). The present study (82-06) sought to explore the possibility that HBI added to local-field irradiation might delay the onset of metastases in the hemibody effected, as assessed by bone scans and X rays, and decrease the frequency of further treatment. The results of this clinical trial establish that 800 cGy of HBI is indeed causes micro-metastases to regress, perhaps completely.

Induction chemotherapy in advanced head and neck cancer. A Radiation Therapy Oncology Group Study.

Cisplatin (cis-platinum, 100 mg/m2) and fluorouracil (1000 mg/m2/d), for 120 hours' infusion every three weeks for three courses, produced a 93% overall response rate and a 54% complete clinical response at the single-institution level. The same combination was tested in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of this combination. An overall response rate of 86% was obtained, with a 38% complete clinical response.

Drug eruptions presenting at sites of prior radiation damage (sunlight and electron beam).

Two patients are described in whom sunburn and electron beam radiodermatitis, respectively, were critical determinants in localizing the initial presentation of drug eruptions. In the first instance, a severe sunburn of the back and thighs was followed 7 months later by the appearance of a toxic epidermal necrolysis drug reaction to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole in the exact sites of the previous bullous sunburn reaction. In the second patient, a radiodermatitis of the left upper arm due to electron beam therapy for metastatic breast cancer was followed 7 weeks later by a codeine drug reaction confined to the area of the radiodermatitis.

Preoperative radiation therapy in Stage I endometrial adenocarcinoma. II. Final report of a clinical trial.

From 1968 to 1975 105 patients with adenocarcinoma of the endometrium, FIGO clinical Stage I, were randomly allocated to receive, prior to hysterectomy, either a single implant with Heyman capsules and/ or tandem and ovoids, or external megavoltage irradiation. There were no significant differences between the two study arms with respect to distribution of age, uterine size, obesity, frequency of diverticular disease, or histologic grade. Complications were graded rigorously to assure recording all possible treatment related complications and to minimize under-reporting of complications not obviously or directly attributable to the radiation.

Preoperative radiation therapy in endometrial carcinoma: preliminary report of a clinical trial.

A total of 91 patients with stage I endometrial adenocarcinoma who were referred for radiation prior to hysterectomy were randomly allocated to recieve either intracavitary or external bean irradiation. Total abdominal hysterectomy was done 4-8 weeks later. The 53 patients who received intracavitary irradiation had an actuarial 5 year disease-free survival rate of 75%; the survival rate of the 38 patients in the external beam group was 48%.