Proton Therapy for Recurrent Lung Cancer
A study presented at the 2017 Multidisciplinary Thoracic Cancers Symposium (Plenary Session Abstract 5) revealed that reirradiation using intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) may be of benefit to patients with lung and other thoracic tumors. More than three-fourths of patients were free from local recurrence at 1 year after retreatment, and the procedure appeared to be well tolerated, with only two patients reporting grade 3 or higher adverse events.
Jennifer Ho, MD, lead author of the study and a resident in radiation oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and colleagues reviewed the medical charts of 27 patients who had received reirradiation with IMPT for thoracic tumors, via prospective clinical trials at a single institution between 2011 and 2016. Of this group, about 80% had NSCLC.
At 1 year after retreatment, 4 patients (15%) experienced an in-field local failure, which extrapolated to 1-year and 2-year freedom from local failure rates of 78%. The 1-year freedom from local-regional relapse and 1-year progression-free survival rates were 61% and 51%, respectively.
