TREATMENT-RELATED PNEUMONITIS AND ACUTE ESOPHAGITIS IN NON SMALL-CELL LUNG CANCER PATIENTS TREATED WITH CHEMOTHERAPY AND HELICAL TOMOTHERAPY

Abstract

Purpose: To assess clinical outcomes and complications in patients with non small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with helical tomotherapy (HT) with or without chemotherapy. Methods and Materials: Data from 37 NSCLC patients treated between January 2007 and August 2008 were analyzed retrospectively. Twenty-eight patients had Stage HI disease. Concurrent and neoadjuvant chemotherapy was given to 24 and 14 patients, respectively. Radiotherapy was delivered to a total dose of 60-70.4 Gy at 2.0-2.4 Gy per fraction to the gross tumor volume and 50-64 Gy at 1.8-2.0 Gy per fraction to the planning target volume. Results: With a median follow-up of 18 months (range, 6-27 months), 2-year local control and overall survival rates were 63% and 56% for all 37 patients, respectively, and were 78% and 75% for the patients with Stage III disease who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy alone. Acute esophagitis and treatment-related pneumonitis (TRP) >= Grade 3 occurred in 5 and 7 patients, respectively. Four patients died of treatment-related death (TRD) after HT. In univariate analysis, poor performance status, total lung V(5), contralateral lung (CL) V(5), and V(10) were associated with TRD. Only CL V(5) remained significant in the multivariate analysis (p = 0.029). Conclusions: HT with chemotherapy has shown promising clinical outcomes, esophagitis, and TRPs. However, HT has produced a somewhat high rate of fatal pulmonary complications. Our data suggest that CL V(5) should be considered and kept as low as possible (<60%) in addition to the conventional dosimetric factors. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc.