Probing thoracic dose patterns associated to pericardial effusion and mortality in patients treated with photons and protons for locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

Radiotherapy (RT) plays a key role in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the current standard-of-care for locally advanced inoperable NSCLC is concurrent chemotherapy (CHT) and RT [1]. While radiobiological evidence advocated the delivery of higher radiation doses to obtain improved tumor control probability [2], the phase III RTOG 0617 trial [3] failed to demonstrate the overall survival (OS) benefit derived from dose escalation (74 Gy vs. 60 Gy). One of the main concerns is regarding the heart toxicity, which may have offset any potential improvement in OS derived from dose escalation.
Source: Radiotherapy and Oncology - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research