Patient and physician attitudes towards salvage stereotactic radiosurgery or radiotherapy for brain metastases.

Background: The experience of patients with brain metastases treated with stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) may shape attitudes towards salvage therapy. Furthermore, physician attitudes towards salvage therapy may differ based on specialty and experience. Our objective is to compare physician attitudes and patient experiences with SRS.

Adjuvant radiation provides survival benefit for resected pancreatic adenocarcinomas of the tail.

Background: The appropriate adjuvant treatment for resected pancreatic cancer remains a controversy. We sought to determine the effect of adjuvant treatment on overall survival (OS) in patients with pancreatic tail adenocarcinoma.

Methods: Retrospective review of patients with upfront surgically resected pancreatic tail cancer treated at our institution between 2000-2012 was performed to determine outcomes of patients treated with and without adjuvant radiation therapy (RT).

Impact of sarcopenia in borderline resectable and locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy.

Background: Total psoas area (TPA), a marker of sarcopenia, has been used as an independent predictor of clinical outcomes in gastrointestinal (GI) cancers as a proxy for frailty and nutritional status. Our study aimed to evaluate whether TPA, in contrast to traditional measurements of nutrition like body mass index (BMI) and body surface area (BSA), was predictive of outcomes in borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (BRPC) and locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) patients receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT).

Methods: Retrospective analysis of an institutional review board approved database of 222 BRPC and LAPC treated with SBRT from 2009-2016 yielded 183 patients that met our selection criteria of pre-SBRT computed tomography (CT) imaging with an identifiable L4 vertebra.

Predictors and survival for pathologic tumor response grade in borderline resectable and locally advanced pancreatic cancer treated with induction chemotherapy and neoadjuvant stereotactic body radiotherapy.

Background: Neoadjuvant therapy response correlates with survival in multiple gastrointestinal malignancies. To potentially augment neoadjuvant response for pancreas adenocarcinoma, we intensified treatment with stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) following multi-agent chemotherapy. Using this regimen, we analyzed whether the College of American Pathology (CAP) tumor regression grade (TRG) at pancreatectomy correlated with established response biomarkers and survival.