Hypofractionated adjuvant radiation therapy of soft-tissue sarcoma achieves excellent results in elderly patients

Adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) is an essential part of combined limb-sparing treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma (STS). Elderly or medically unfit patients often have difficulty in completing 6-7 weeks of standard fractionated daily treatment. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of a hypofractionated...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of radiology 2013-08, Vol.86 (1028), p.20130258-20130258
Main Authors: Soyfer, V, Corn, B W, Kollender, Y, Issakov, J, Dadia, S, Flusser, G, Bickels, J, Meller, I, Merimsky, O
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Combined Modality Therapy
Dose Fractionation, Radiation
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Radiotherapy Dosage
Radiotherapy, Adjuvant
Retrospective Studies
Sarcoma - radiotherapy
Sarcoma - surgery
Treatment Outcome
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Summary:Adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) is an essential part of combined limb-sparing treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma (STS). Elderly or medically unfit patients often have difficulty in completing 6-7 weeks of standard fractionated daily treatment. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of a hypofractionated adjuvant approach with RT for STS in elderly and debilitated patients. 21 elderly patients were treated with a short course of adjuvant RT (39-48 Gy, 3 Gy per fraction) for STS. The medical records of the patients were retrospectively reviewed for local or distant recurrence and side effects of RT. At a mean 26 months of follow-up, three local recurrences (14%) were detected. Eight patients (38%) had lung metastases during the observed period. Three of them died from metastatic disease. The hypofractionated radiation was well tolerated with minimum long-term side effects. Hypofractionated adjuvant radiation appears to be an effective treatment in terms of local control in elderly and debilitated patients. The results of this study might provide an alternative to commonly used standard fractionation of radiotherapy in sarcoma patients.
ISSN:0007-1285
1748-880X
DOI:10.1259/bjr.20130258