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We aimed to restore dose-volume parameters of swallowing-related structures (SRSs) by evaluating long-term swallowing dysfunctions after radiotherapy (RT) in head and neck cancer patients (HNCPs). Materials and Methods: Head and neck cancer patients whose pharyngeal region was involved in RT portal and treated with definitive RT/chemoradiotherapy (CRT) were included in the analyses. Patients underwent objective swallowing assessment by flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES). Volumes of SRSs that received 55 Gy (V 55) (mean dose [D mean ]) were evaluated according to the dose-volume histograms of each patient. For every SRS, optimal dose-volume cutoff values were determined by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: Fifty-five patients at a median 20 months (range, 12-26 months) after their treatments were evaluated. There was a strong negative correlation between FEES scores and dose-volume parameters of SRS (r ⩽-0.5, P < .0001). According to our results, middle pharyngeal constrictor (MPC) and inferior pharyngeal constrictor (IPC) had a D mean > 57 Gy, base of tongue (BOT) D mean > 50 Gy, supraglottic larynx (SGL) and glottic larynx (GL) D mean > 55 Gy, and cervical esophagus (CE) D mean > 45 Gy. MPC V 55 > 70%, IPC V 55 > 50%, BOT V 55 > 65%, CE V 55 > 40%, and SGL and GL V 55 > 50% were significant predictors for dysphagia. Conclusion: It was found that dysphagia correlates strongly with dose-volume parameters of SRSs. IPC, SGL, and CE were found to be structures significantly associated with dysphagia.

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Objectives:Hippocampal avoidance during whole-brain radiotherapy is performed to prevent neural stem cell injury causing neurocognitive dysfunction. Nevertheless, the estimated risk of metastases in hippocampal avoidance area in small-cell lung cancer is unknown. The current study aimed to characterize the metastatic distribution within the brain relative to the hippocampus, estimate the incidence of hippocampal metastasis in patients with small-cell lung cancer, and identify clinical and radiographic variables that may be associated with the risk of hippocampal avoidance area metastasis.Materials and Methods:Patients with small-cell lung cancer treated with therapeutic whole-brain radiotherapy between January 2010 and December 2015 were reviewed. T1-weighted, postcontrast axial magnetic resonance images obtained just before therapeutic cranial irradiation were retrieved and reviewed for each patient. The hippocampal avoidance area was defined as hippocampus and 5-mm ring area adjacent to the hippocampus to account for necessary dose falloff between the hippocampus and the whole-brain planning target volume. Metastatic lesions within hippocampal avoidance area were defined as hippocampal metastasis. Hippocampal metastasis rate and characteristics of patients with hippocampal metastasis were analyzed and compared to patients without hippocampal metastasis.Results:Fifty-four patients evaluated with cranial magnetic resonance imaging were enrolled. Hippocampal metastasis rate was 32% (17 patients). A total of 4.4% of all metastases involved the hippocampal avoidance area. The most common location was frontal lobe. Being younger than 65 years of age was found to be an independent risk factor for HM (odds ratio: 4.8, 95% confidence interval: 1-23.2, P = .049). The number of brain metastases was significantly higher in patients with hippocampal metastasis (P = .027), and hippocampal metastasis rate was also higher in patients having larger hippocampus (P = .026) and larger brain volumes (P = .02).Conclusion:Hippocampal metastasis might be more common in small-cell lung cancer. Reducing the dose to the hippocampus by hippocampal avoiding whole-brain radiotherapy plan in small-cell lung cancer may be risky for the development of HM compared with other malignant solid tumors.

Introduction To evaluate the clinical and dosimetric parameters that increase the risk of radiation pneumonitis (RP) in locally advanced non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with concomitant chemoradiotherapy of nationwide multicentric data analysis. Methods All data of 268 patients who underwent definitive chemoradiotherapy were retrospectively collected from eight institutes participating in this study. Patient, tumor and treatment‐related factors and dosimetric parameters were analyzed for grade ≥2 RP. The toxicity scoring system of The Radiation Therapy Oncology Group used for grading the severity of pneumonitis. A relationship with the risk of RP with potential predictive factors were evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. A recursive partition analysis (RPA) was applied to stratify patients according to the risk of developing RP. Results There were 90 (33.6%) patients who had grade ≥2 RP. The median time to pneumonitis after treatment was 4 months (range:1‐6 months). In univariate analysis, diabetes mellitus (DM), use of cisplatin/etoposide, total and daily radiotherapy (RT) fraction dose, the planning target volume (PTV) size, mean lung dose, V5, V10 and RT technique were associated with the development of pneumonitis. In multivariate analysis, only DM (P = 0.008) was found to be independent risk factors for RP. According to RPA, the risk of developing RP was highest in patients with DM. Conclusions In our study, besides the known dosimetric factors, DM was found to be the most important risk factor causing RP development in multivariate analysis and RPA. The risk is tripled compared to patients without DM.

Hyperglycemia may lead to proliferation, invasion, apoptosis inhibition, migration, and eventually metastasis of cancer cells by several mechanisms. In this study, the effect of hyperglycemia on overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and locoregional recurrence (LRR) was investigated in NSCLC. One stage IIIA-IIIB NSCLC patient treated with chemoradiotherapy between 2010 and 2015 was enrolled. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels were recorded in pre-treatment, treatment, and post-treatment periods. Median age was 54 years (51-62). Fifty-two patients had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC); 19 had adenocarcinoma. Median follow-up was 19 (11-30), median survival was 19 (13-24), and DFS was 9 (7-11) months. Diabetic patients had shorter survival than non-diabetics 12 (95%CI, 10-14) vs. 25 months (95%CI,18-32), p = 0.005. Number of patients with LRR was also higher in diabetics compared to non-diabetics (8/12 vs. 11/37, p = 0.039). OS was shorter in patients with hyperglycemic-FBG and diabetic-FBG levels in pre-treatment period (log-rank p = 0.03 and 0.023, respectively). Diabetic-FBG level in pre-treatment period was found to be the only independent risk factor for survival. In subgroup analysis, these differences were apparent in SCC (log-rank p = 0.009 for hyperglicemic, log-rank p = 0.017 for diabetic-FBG). LRR was 68% in patients with diabetic-FBG, 36.5% in patients with non-diabetic-FBG in post-treatment period (p = 0.015). Patients with LRR had significantly higher median FBG value in post-treatment period compared to non-relapsing patients, 138 mg/dL (119-228) and 111 mg/dL (99-164), respectively (p = 0.022). The patients with hyperglycemic and diabetic-FBG levels in pre-treatment period had shorter survival compared to normoglycemic ones. The patients with diabetic-FBG level in post-treatment period had higher LRR, and relapsing patients had higher FBG levels in post-treatment period.

OBJECTIVES:Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) decreases incidence of brain metastasis and improves survival in patients with limited disease-small cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC) who achieved complete response (CR) after treatment. There is no satisfactory evidence about the necessity of new brain imaging for asymptomatic metastasis immediately prior to PCI. The present study aimed to evaluate the frequency of brain metastasis in SCLC patients without neurological symptoms who are candidates for PCI. MATERIAL AND METHODS:The data files of 243 patients with SCLC referred for cranial irradiation were retrospectively reviewed. The patients with following characteristics were enrolled to the study; 1) LD-SCLC patients with CR after chemoradiotherapy who are candidates for PCI. 2) No neurological signs or symptoms of brain metastasis after chemoradiotherapy. 3) Having brain imaging at initial diagnosis and before PCI. RESULTS:Ninety-nine patients (83 male, 83.3%) were included in this study. Median age was 60 years. Time interval between initial and reevaluation for brain metastasis was median 5.5 months (range; 4.7-7.1). Asymptomatic brain metastasis rate was 20.2% (18/99). CONCLUSION:Even if local disease is under control, asymptomatic brain metastasis is not rare. Therefore, patients who are candidates for PCI after completion of chemoradiotherapy should be reimaged for brain metastasis before PCI. KEYWORDS: Prophylaxis, brain, imaging, SCLC, metastasis INTRODUCTIONApproximately 30% of patients with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) initially staged as limited disease (LD) are candidates for combined model treatment (CMT) with curative intent. CMT with sequential or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) achieves complete response (CR) in 50%-60% of patients. However, the blood-brain barrier precludes the penetration of chemotherapeutic agents to the brain. The risk for brain metastasis occurrence is approximately 50% in the first 2 years after diagnosis [1]. Silent brain metastasis may develop at some point during the treatment course even in patients with a CR of intrathoracic disease. Emerging evidence suggests that prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) in patients with LD-SCLC who have achieved CR after CRT reduces the incidence of brain metastasis and improves survival [2,3]. However, the recommended dose for whole brain radiotherapy in patients with brain metastasis differs from the preferred dose for PCI [2].Lung cancer guidelines recommend routine initial evaluations for brain metastasis with contrast-enhanced (CE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) in patients with SCLC [4,5]. The necessity of radiological reevaluation to detect asymptomatic brain metastasis before PCI has not been remarked on the guidelines, contrary to recommendations for the initial staging of SCLC.Manapov et al. [6] detected silent brain metastasis in 32.5% of small patients size with LD-SCLC who were complete responders to CRT with pre-PCI second CE-MRI. However, there is a paucity of data on the frequency of asympt...

Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare disorder. Uncontrolled clonal proliferation of langerhans cells leads to a diversity of clinical manifestations. Low dose Radiotherapy (RT) is used mainly for osseous manifestations as a sole treatment or in combination with surgery/chemotherapy/steroids. Altough the mechanism of action of RT is an unresolved issue, it's usually used in adjuvant/palliative settings, also as first-line local therapy with curative intent in unresectable or resectable cases in case surgery would result in functional compromise. This study is conducted to review indications, dose-fractionation schedules, clinical characteristics and outcomes of LCH patients received local RT mainly for osseous lesions. The medical records of biopsy proven all LCH patients referred to our center and treated with RT between 2000-2016 were evaluated retrospectively. Disease-free survival (DFS), local control and side effects were defined as study end-points. There was 35 patients, 21 of them were children. At presentation 65.7% had single systemsingle bone, 20% had single system-multiple bone, 15% had multisystem disease.Soft tissue extension were detected in 16 children, 4 adults (p= 0.013).Mean radiation dose was 10.8 Gy. Median follow-up from the date of biopsy was 105 months (range= 8-204) in children and 88 (range:31-245) in adults (log rank p:0.029).Complete response rate was 97%. 11 children and 1 adult experienced relapse (p= 0.05), median interval for relapse was 9months in children, 19months in adults. The most common relapse pattern was as single system-multiple bone (58.3%). Local control was 97.1%. Median disease free survival was 85 months. Low dose local RT seems to be effective and safe in multidisciplinary management of LCH.