In patients with head and neck cancer undergoing CCRT, the early nutritional management reduces weight loss and improve outcome.

Our data suggest that an early and intensive nutritional support might reduce weight loss before, during, and after treatment completion, improving outcome, QoL, and PS.

Purpose To investigate the efficacy and safety of concurrent stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and ipilimumab or nivolumab in patients with untreated melanoma brain metastases. Patients and Methods Eighty consecutive patients with 326 melanoma brain metastases receiving SRS in combination with ipilimumab or nivolumab were identified from an institutional database and retrospectively evaluated. Patients started systemic treatment with intravenous nivolumab or ipilimumab within one week of receiving SRS. Nivolumab was given at doses of 3 mg/kg every two weeks. Ipilimumab was administered up to four doses of 10 mg/kg, one every 3 weeks, then patients had a maintenance dose of 10 mg/kg every 12 weeks, until disease progression or inacceptable toxicity. Primary endpoint of the study was intracranial progression-free survival (PFS). Secondary endpoints were extracranial PFS, overall survival (OS), and neurological toxicity. Results Eighty patients were analyzed. Forty-five patients received SRS and ipilimumab, and 35 patients received SRS and nivolumab. With a median follow-up of 15 months, the 6-month and 12-month intracranial PFS rates were 69% (95%CI,54–87%) and 42% (95%CI,24–65%) for patients receiving SRS and nivolumab and 48% (95%CI,34–64%) and 17% (95%CI,5–31%) for those treated with SRS and ipilimumab (p = 0.02), respectively. Extracranial PFS and OS were 37 and 78% in SRS and nivolumab group, respectively, and 17 and 68% in SRS and ipilimumab group, respectively, at 12 months. Sub-group analysis showed significantly better intracranial PFS for patients receiving multi-fraction SRS (3 × 9 Gy) compared to single-fraction SRS (70% versus 46% at 6 months, p = 0.01), especially in combination with nivolumab. Grade 3 treatment-related adverse events occurred in 11 (24%) patients treated with SRS and ipilimumab and 6 (17%) patients who received SRS and nivolumab. Radiation-induced brain necrosis (RN) occurred in 15% of patients. Conclusions Concurrent SRS and ipilimumab or nivolumab show meaningful intracranial activity in patients with either asymptomatic and symptomatic melanoma brain metastases, although a subset of patients may develop symptomatic RN. The combination of nivolumab with SRS is associated with better intracranial control. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s40425-019-0588-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective To assess the safety and effectiveness of stereotactic salvage radiotherapy (SSRT) in RT‐naïve patients affected by macroscopic prostate bed recurrence. Patients and methods Consecutive patients treated for prostate bed macroscopic recurrence in three different Italian institutes were reviewed. Patients were treated with SSRT, with a total dose of 30–40 Gy in five fractions, the mean pre‐SSRT PSA level was 2.3 ng/mL. Two different PSA thresholds were defined and biochemical recurrence‐free survival (BCRFS) was reported, in order to better express outcome: BCRFS1 (a PSA level increase of >10% compared to the pre‐SSRT value) and BCRFS2 (a PSA level increase of >0.2 ng/mL for patients with a PSA nadir of <0.2 ng/mL or two consecutive PSA level increases of >25% compared to nadir in patients with a PSA nadir of <0.2 ng/mL). Results In all, 90 patients were treated, with a mean (range) follow‐up of 21.2 (2–64) months, and 17 of these patients (19%) had concomitant androgen‐deprivation therapy (ADT) during SSRT. Complete biochemical response, defined as a PSA nadir of <0.2 ng/mL, was obtained in 39 of the 90 patients (43.3%). Considering BCRFS1, 25 patients (27.8%) had BCR, with an actuarial median BCRFS1 time of 36.4 months. For BCRFS2, BCR was reported in 32 patients (35.5%), with an actuarial median BCRFS2 time of 24.3 months. There was no Grade >2 toxicity. Conclusions SSRT was found to yield significant biochemical control and allowed ADT delay despite adverse features.

Purpose Our purpose was to assess the clinical outcomes and target positioning accuracy of frameless linear accelerator single-isocenter multiple-target (SIMT) dynamic conformal arc (DCA) stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for multiple brain metastases (BM). Methods and Materials Between October 2016 and September 2018, 31 consecutive patients ≥18 years old with 204 BM <3 cm in maximum size receiving SIMT DCA SRS were retrospectively evaluated. All plans were created using a dedicated automated treatment planning software (Brainlab, Munich, Germany), and treatments were performed with a Truebeam STx or a Novalis Tx (Brainlab and Varian Medical Systems, CA). The accuracy of setup and interfraction patient repositioning was assessed by Brainlab ExacTrac radiograph 6-dimensional image system and the risk of compromised target dose coverage evaluated. Brain control and overall survival were estimated by Kaplan-Meier method calculated from the time of SRS. Results Fourteen patients were treated for 4 to 6 and 17 patients for 7 to 10 BM. The mean gross tumor volume (GTV) was 0.65 cm 3 and the mean planning target volume (PTV) was 0.89 cm 3 . Mean V95 (the volume of the PTV covered by 95% of the prescription dose) and D95 (the prescription dose covering 95% of the PTV) were 99.5% and 21.1 Gy, respectively. With a median clinical follow-up of 11 months (range, 4-26 months), the 1-year survival was 68% and local control was 89%. As a consequence of plan isocenter residual errors, a loss of target coverage, defined as V95 < 95%, occurred in 28 PTVs (10 patients); using a 1 mm GTV-to-PTV margin, adequate dose coverage was maintained for all lesions. Conclusions SIMT DCA SRS represents a fast and effective approach for patients with up to 10 BM. The dosimetric effects of residual set-up and intrafraction positioning errors are modest, although a GTV-to-PTV margin of 1 mm is recommended.