Failed radiosurgery in cases of vestibular schwannoma was rare. No clear relationship was demonstrated between the use of radiosurgery and the subsequent ease or difficulty of delayed microsurgery. Because some patients have temporary enlargement of their tumor after radiosurgery, the need for surgical resection after radiosurgery should be reviewed with the neurosurgeon who performed the radiosurgery and should be delayed until sustained tumor growth is confirmed. A subtotal tumor resection should be considered for patients who require surgical resection of their tumor after vestibular schwannoma radiosurgery.

Objective: We prospectively compared FDG-PET and FLT-PET in assessing patient responses to induction cetuximab and/or chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and esophageal cancer (EC). Methods:Sixteen patients were enrolled, 9 with HNSCC and 7 with EC. FDG-PET and FLT-PET scans were performed at baseline and two weeks into chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for patients with EC. Patients with HNSCC received two weeks of induction chemotherapy along with post-induction PET scans prior to starting CRT in addition to the baseline and intra-chemoradiotherapy PET scans. Changes in SUVmax and total lesion glycolysis/ proliferation (TLG/TLP) were compared with baseline.Results: Median follow-up for living patients was 6.0 years. Median overall survival (OS) was 3.3 years and progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.5 years. Patients with HNSCC had higher baseline SUVmax, TLG and TLP than those with EC. Changes in SUVmax, TLG and TLP after induction chemotherapy or during CRT did not correlate with PFS or OS. Those with >40% decline in SUVmax on FDG-PET six weeks after completing CRT had better PFS (p<0.0001) and OS (p=0.0003) than those with less of a response. In addition, >70% decrease in posttreatment TLG correlated with better PFS (p=0.03) and OS (p=0.04). Conclusions:Functional imaging performed early during chemoradiotherapy for advanced HNSCC and EC is feasible. Changes on post-induction and intra-CRT FLT and FDG PET did not correlate with PFS or OS. However, better PFS and OS were seen in patients with >40% decline in SUVmax and >70% decrease in TLG on FDG-PET performed six weeks after completing CRT. Further research is needed to determine the prognostic impact of PET performed during chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Surgery has been the standard treatment for melanoma metastatic to lymph nodes [1-4]; however, recent data suggest adjuvant radiotherapy reduces regional nodal recurrence [5]. Regional lymph node recurrence rates range from 5% to 20% after adjuvant radiotherapy compared with 20% to 50% after surgery alone [1-4, 6-11]. Radiotherapy is often not administered because of a belief that melanoma is radioresistant [12]. Studies have suggested high-dose-per-fraction radiotherapy may render melanoma radioresponsive [13]. However, this has not been confirmed by prospective clinical trials [14]. The long-term sequelae of high-dose-per-fraction radiotherapy, especially intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), in patients with melanoma metastatic to axillary or inguinal lymph nodes have not been thoroughly characterized [7, 12, 14]. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of adjuvant radiotherapy on in-field nodal control (NC) of melanoma metastatic to axillary and inguinal lymph nodes and to document treatment-related complications.