Abstract
Background: Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide. Stereotactic body irradiation offers a non-invasive treatment modality for patients with early stage NSCLC who are not amenable to surgery or other invasive approaches because of their poor medical condition. Patients and Methods: Forty-three inoperable patients with NSCLC were treated with SBRT at our institution. A mean total dose of 30.5 Gy in 1-4 fractions was applied. The median follow-up duration was 14 months (range 6-36 months). Results: The actuarial survival at two years was 53%: two patients died from cancer progression whereas a further 8 patients died from comorbidities. Acute toxicity was practically absent, with 7 (16.3%) patients suffering from grade 1 symptoms and two from (4.6%) grade II effects. At the time of this report, only 1 patient had grade II and 6 patients (13.9%) grade I chronic symptoms. Conclusion: Our results compare favourably with recently published studies and confirm that stereotactic radiotherapy has the potential to produce high local control rates with a low risk of lung toxicity in patients not amenable to curative resection. The low grade of side-effects is encouraging for shortening the treatment using a greater dose per fraction.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 3615-3619 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Anticancer Research |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 5 B |
Publication status | Published - Sep 2007 |
Keywords
- Normal tissue toxicity
- NSCLC
- Radiotherapy
- SBRT
- Tumour response
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cancer Research
- Oncology