Introduction:To investigate the effect of different hypo fractionated thoracic radiotherapy schedules in relation to thoracic pain relief, overall survival and post radiotherapy HRQOL in metastatic NSCLC.Material and methods:Stage IV NSCLC and had intra-thoracic symptoms, included in the study. Patients were randomly assigned to three treatments arms. (i) 17 Gy in 2 fractions in one week (ii) 20 Gy in five fractions in one week. (iii) 30 Gy in 10 fractions in two weeks. BPI module was used to assess pain score before and after the thoracic radiotherapy. Functional assessment of cancer therapy-G (FACT-G) used to investigate changes in HRQOL. Clinicians’ assessment of symptom improvement were recorded at 2nd, 6th and 12th weeks after completion of TRT.Results:Pain relief, HRQOL and OS were equivalent in all the three arms. The median OS were 6 months, 5 months, 6 months in arm A, B and arm C, respectively.Conclusion:Protracted palliative thoracic radiotherapy renders no added advantage of relief of symptoms, HRQOL and overall survival compared to short course palliative TRT in metastatic NSCLC.

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Background: Vitamin D is not only important for bone health but can also affect the development of several non-bone diseases. These findings have increased the need for determining vitamin D status in a convenient and cost-effective way. In order to determine the better method for detecting vitamin D status, we have estimated blood vitamin D in three methods such as high-pressure liquid chromatography, chemiluminescent immunoassays and enzyme immunoassays. Method: Two hundred and sixteen subjects irrespective of age and sex were studied for blood vitamin D in all the three methods over a period of 2 years. Result: The statistical analysis showed that values of vitamin D obtained by chemiluminescent immunoassays (r = 0.978, p < 0.001) were more significantly correlated with high-pressure liquid chromatography than enzyme immunoassays (r = 0.970, p < 0.001). Conclusion: We conclude that chemiluminescent immunoassays should be used instead of enzyme immunoassay and high-pressure liquid chromatography for estimation of vitamin D.

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Background Cervical and endometrial carcinoma incidentally found in the surgical specimen with high risk pathological finding or with gross residual disease. Material and Methods Between 2004 and 2010, 320 cervical and endometrial cancer patients were treated with EBRT and brachytherapy after having undergone total/ subtotal hysterectomy. Sixty patients were lost to followup. Results Median follow-up was 21 months. Endometrial and cervical cancer with a high risk for local recurrence achieved CR 93.8 and 89 %, respectively. 56 % patients experienced CR with residual disease with cervical cancer. Median OS for endometrial and cervical cancer with residual disease was 8.5 and 24 months, respectively. Grade 3 adverse events were 5 and 3.5 % for rectum and bladder, respectively. Conclusion The incorporation of chemotherapy during pelvic radiotherapy followed by HDR interstitial brachytherapy for residual disease is inadequate and improves survival. We are still in learning phase of brachytherapy in post-operative gynaecological malignancy cases; expertise will be developed by practice.

Background:Platinum based doublets chemotherapy are the standard of care for metastatic or advanced non-small cell lung carcinoma. This leads to modest survival advantage and improve quality-of-life. However, patients with advanced or metastatic disease eventually present disease progression and needs second-line systemic therapy in a selected group of patients or other supportive measures. There is very little knowledge available from the literature about the prognostic variables in patients, who receive second-line therapy.Materials and Methods:We retrospectively reviewed 329 patients received second-line treatment from July 2007 to September 2011 in the Department of Radiation Oncology, Burdwan Medical College and Hospital. For statistical analysis, 12 potential prognostic variables included. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis carried out to identify the prognostic variables associated with survival.Results:The results of univariate analysis for overall survival (OS) and survival after second-line therapy identified to have prognostic significance: Age, sex, performance status, smoking history, serum lactate dehydrogenase, histopathology, first-line chemotherapy and its response and second-line therapy except the stage at diagnosis and site of failure after first-line therapy. The multivariate Cox regression analysis has shown that only performance and second-line therapy were independent prognostic variables for survival after second-line treatment and above these prognostic factors; age, smoking status and progression free survival also for OS.Conclusion:The performance status has shown consistent result as a prognostic factor in univariate and multivariate analysis for OS and survival after second-line therapy. These findings may also facilitate pretreatment prediction of survival and be used for selecting patients for the correct choice of cytotoxic therapy.

Background:Cancer specific survival and quality-of-life (QOL) assessment are important in evaluating cancer treatment outcomes. Baseline demographic profiles have significant effects on follow-up health related QOL (HRQOL) and affect the outcome of treatments.Materials and Methods:Post-operative gynaecological cancer patients required adjuvant pelvic radiation enrolled longitudinal assessment study. Patients had completed the short form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire before the adjuvant radiotherapy and functional assessments of cancer therapy-general module at 6th month's follow-up period to assess the HRQOL. Baseline variables were race, age, body mass index (BMI), education, marital status, type of surgery, physical composite scores (PCS) and mental composite scores (MCS) summary scores of the SF-36. Univariate and multivariate regression analysis used to determine the influence of these variables on post-radiotherapy HRQOL domains.Results:Baseline PCS, MCS, age, education and marital status had positively correlation with post-radiotherapy HRQOL while higher BMI had a negative impact in univariate analysis. In multivariate regression analysis, education and MCS had a positive correlation while higher BMI had a negative correlation with HRQOL domains.Conclusion:Enhance our ability to detect demographic variables and modify those factors and develops new treatment aimed at improving all aspect of gynaecological cancer including good QOL.