The sole benefit of internal mammary area irradiation (IMNI) on treatment outcome is unknown. We examined whether the inclusion of IMNI in regional nodal irradiation improved outcomes in women with node-positive breast cancer. Materials/Methods: KROG 08-06 is a multicenter, prospective, randomized phase 3 trial done at 13 hospitals in South Korea. Patients with pathologically confirmed node-positive breast cancer after breast conservation surgery (BCS) or mastectomy with axillary lymph node dissection were eligible. Patients with distant metastasis or those who had neoadjuvant treatment were excluded. All patients underwent regional nodal irradiation along with breast or chest wall irradiation using 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy with a total dose of 45−54 Gy and fractional dose of 1.8−2.0 Gy. Patients were stratified according to the type of surgery (BCS or mastectomy) and N stage (N1 or N2, N3) and randomly allocated to either IMNI or no IMNI. The primary endpoint was 7-year disease-free survival (DFS). Secondary endpoints were rates of overall survival, breast cancer-specific survival, and toxicity. Results: Between 2008 and 2013, 747 patients were enrolled, of whom 362 patients in IMNI arm and 373 patients in non-IMNI arm were analyzed. Nearly all patients underwent taxane-based adjuvant systemic treatment. At a median follow-up of 8.4 years, 127 patients had breast cancerrelated events and 89 patients died. At 7 years, the DFS rates were 81.9% in non-IMNI arm and 85.3% in IMNI arm (HR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.57−1.14; P = .220). Subgroup analyses showed significantly improved DFS and breast cancer mortality in IMNI arm among the patients with medio-centrally located tumors. In this subgroup, the 7-year DFS rates were 81.6% without IMNI versus 91.8% with IMNI (HR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.22−0.82; P = .010) and the 7-year breast cancer mortality rates were 10.2% versus 4.9% (HR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.17−0.99; P = .048). There were no differences in adverse effects including cardiac toxicity and radiation pneumonitis between treatment arms. Conclusion: Including IMNI in regional nodal irradiation did not significantly improve DFS for unselected women with node-positive breast cancer. Women with medially or centrally located tumors can be considered for applying IMNI when performing regional nodal irradiation.
Objective Failure rate in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is > 50%, includes safety-problems, underpowered statistics, lack of efficacy, lack of funding or insufficient patient recruitment and is even more pronounced in oncology trials. We present results of a structured concept-development phase (CDP) for a phase III RCT on personalized radiotherapy (RT) in primary prostate cancer (PCa) patients implementing prostate specific membrane antigen targeting positron emission tomography (PSMA-PET). Materials and methods The 1 yr process of the CDP contained five main working packages: (i) literature search and scoping review, (ii) involvement of individual patients, patients’ representatives and patients’ self-help groups addressing the patients’ willingness to participate in the preparation process and the conduct of RCTs as well as the patient informed consent (PIC), (iii) involvement of national and international experts and expert panels (iv) a phase II pilot study investigating the safety of implementation of PSMA-PET for focal dose escalation RT and (v) in-silico RT planning studies assessing feasibility of envisaged dose regimens and effects of urethral sparing in focal dose escalation. Results (i) Systematic literature searches confirmed the high clinical relevance for more evidence on advanced RT approaches, in particular stereotactic body RT, in high-risk PCa patients. (ii) Involvement of patients, patient representatives and randomly selected males relevantly changed the PIC and initiated a patient empowerment project for training of bladder preparation. (iii) Discussion with national and international experts led to adaptions of inclusion and exclusion criteria. (iv) Fifty patients were treated in the pilot trial and in- and exclusion criteria as well as enrollment calculations were adapted accordingly. Parallel conduction of the pilot trial revealed pitfalls on practicability and broadened the horizon for translational projects. (v) In-silico planning studies confirmed feasibility of envisaged dose prescription. Despite large prostate- and boost-volumes of up to 66% of the prostate, adherence to stringent anorectal dose constraints was feasible. Urethral sparing increased the therapeutic ratio. Conclusion The dynamic framework of interdisciplinary working programs in CDPs enhances robustness of RCT protocols and may be associated with decreased failure rates. Structured recommendations are warranted to further define the process of such CDPs in radiation oncology trials.
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