Superficial Radiation Therapy and Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer
Posted: Tuesday, March 31, 2020
A study conducted by dermatologist William Roth, MD, of Boynton Beach, Florida, and colleagues showed that low-dose superficial radiation therapy (SRT) was an effective and well-tolerated treatment for patients with non-melanoma skin cancer, particularly among older patients with comorbidities. The authors concluded that treatment with low-dose SRT achieved a 98.9% non-recurrence rate of non-melanoma skin cancers after 85 months. Results of the study were published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology.
This retrospective study enrolled male and female patients (with a mean age of 79 years) who had non-melanoma skin cancer. They underwent long-term follow-up after treatment with the SRT-100 system before January 2015. Of the 516 participants, 448 participants had basal cell carcinoma, and 328 had squamous cell carcinoma, for a total of 776 non-melanoma skin lesions. Low-dose SRT was administered at 4,652.33 cGy (range = 3,636.6–5,455 cGy) over an average of 12.3 sessions. Using the Kaplan-Meier survival probability estimate, researchers presented a consistent cure rate of 0.989 at 24 months (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.980–0.998), 0.989 at 60 months (95% CI = 0.969–1.000), and 0.989 at 85 months (95% CI = 0.942– 1.000).
The most common adverse event was hypopigmentation. Relapses occurred in two patients with squamous cell carcinoma and in four patients with basal cell carcinoma. The authors noted several research limitations, including an incomplete data set for the 5-year study and its retrospective study design.
Disclosure: The study authors’ disclosures can be found at www.jddonline.com
