Radiotherapy with soft X‐rays in Dupuytren's disease – successful, well‐tolerated and satisfying

Abstract

In 206 DD patients further disease progression was stopped in most patients. Radiotherapy proved to be well-tolerated, successful and satisfying for the patients.

To remember: Radiotherapy – a successful treatment for early Dupuytren′s disease

“…More recent publications using a total dose of 21 Gy found improvement or stabilization of symptoms in 91% of the patients vs. 93% in a group of patients irradiated with a total dose of 30 Gy after a follow‐up time of 12 months. Using total doses from 30 to 32 Gy for improvement or stabilization of DD was also confirmed in other studies in 98% (follow‐up >18 months) #bib95% (follow‐up >3 years), 80% (median follow‐up of 4 years and 4 months), 100% (follow‐up up to 5 years) and 94% (follow‐up with a median of 6 years)of the patients. A study using a cumulative dose of 40 Gy showed an improvement or stabilization in 93% (follow‐up up to 9 years) and another with 20 Gy in 82% (follow‐up up to 2.5 years)of the patients.…”

“…Acute toxicity (redness, dryness or desquamation of the skin within 6 weeks after radiotherapy) occurred more often and more intense (32%) in the groups without intervals compared to a protocol with longer intervals (24%) using 3 Gy as a single dose, but the results were similar to protocols using 4 Gy as single dose (32%).…”

“…Correspondingly progression was seen in 2%/19%/41%/43%/55% of the patients with a median follow‐up of 13 years. Another study also revealed a significantly higher improvement in patients with symptom duration of <20 months.…”

“…serial irradiations: 16%, irradiations with intervals: 11.5%) in the same study 42 . Protocols using 4 Gy as single dose on two consecutive days usually apply an interval of at least 8 weeks 25,[33][34][35]44 . Dryness of skin was seen in 20% as a chronic side-effect 35 .…”

Dupuytren’s contracture: the status and impact of collagenase Clostridium histolyticum treatment in Austria

“…However, this technique is accompanied with certain adverse effects, such as a depigmentation or temporary subcutaneous atrophy at the site of the injection and a recurrence rate of 50% [14,[24][25][26][27][28]. Also, the impact of radiotherapy and shockwave therapy on Dupuytren's contracture has been investigated [14,[29][30][31][32]. A target for future therapies could be the dysregulation of IGF-II and IGFBP-6 in the development of Dupuytren's disease as well as metalloproteases [33,34].…”