Radiation Oncology
Expert insights on radiation treatment planning, techniques, toxicity management, and multimodal cancer care.
Recent Discussions
Is long term ADT now the standard of care with salvage prostate bed RT?
The dreaded hormone question...After 40 years of embarking on extremely well designed randomized trials, we still are confused about the who, what, when of ADT. Will RTOG 9601 create a new care standard? As @Dr. First Last said, I think we will see increased utilization. I have been using bicalutami...
What adverse features would prompt you to give post-TORS radiation therapy to completely resected early stage (T0-2) p16+ tonsillar cancer?
I would base my recommendation on the standard and conventional indications for PORT, which in this case of an early-stage primary tumor with negative margins, would comprise the presence of PNI, LVI, close (<3-5 mm) margins, single node >3 cm, or multiple positive nodes. I assume there is no extrac...
Considering the surgical margins used in TORS, is it necessary to cover the entire tongue base with an elective dose in IMRT of cT1-3 HPV+ squamous cell carcinoma grossly involving one side of the base of tongue?
Frankly, I see no point in doing TORS if a patient is likely to require postop RT unless you believe that you can safely treat neck only (which includes unavoidably part of the ipsilateral oropharynx to irradiate the RP nodes). And I do not (but have been wrong before). Particularly HPV positive non...
What radiation doses and subsequent treatment monitoring would you recommend for multiple myeloma patients with multifocal bony lesions who decline chemotherapy?
Systemic therapy is the cornerstone of treatment for multiple myeloma, and the vast majority of patients initiate an appropriate regimen upon diagnosis. Occasionally, patients will have very limited disease and will be referred to Radiation Oncology for consideration of local therapy to delay the ne...
How does the potential for a patient to accept or forego adjuvant tamoxifen factor into your recommendations on adjuvant RT for DCIS?
In the RTOG 9804 trial, the only factors predicting for local control in the breast were the use of radiation and of tamoxifen. So for women who have hormone positive tumors, I strongly advocate for some treatment in addition to the lumpectomy.I find the results of the UK, Australia, and New Zealand...
When you treat postop head and neck cancer, do you typically add a CTV margin to the delineated postoperative bed, or just treat postop bed plus PTV margin?
We don't ever have a CTV margin. It is postop bed which accounts for all pre-surgery GTV and all postoperative changes on imaging, also review the op note and path. We then add a 3-5mm margin to account for set-up.
Is there a correlation between rectal cancer stage and dose response to radiotherapy?
Possibly. While some compelling data from Appelt et al. in 2013 reflected there may be a correlation between RT dose and rectal tumor response (Appelt et al., PMID 22763027), an extensive number of prospective trials examining the influence of boost doses of RT on pathologic response have produced m...
Would you use upfront atezo/bev in a patient with HCC and untreated hepatitis?
Yes. I would not have concerns. For HBV, I would start treatment before or simultaneously. Studies have varied by protocol about the HBV viral load being under 500 or 100 but it is not clear this matters. There have not been flairs reported. In regards to HCV, again, not an issue for me.
In a patient with dMMR rectal adenocarcinoma, does the use of palliative RT for bleeding (5 Gy x 5) preclude the use of immunotherapy?
I would hesitate to use palliative radiation for patients with dMMR rectal cancer as long as possible because there are many patients who could be treated with immunotherapy alone for their disease and avoid long-term toxicity from chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery (Cercek et al., PMID 40293177)....
Which calculators, nomograms, or other resources, if any, do you use to help advise and prognosticate patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma or other gliomas?
This is a rather difficult question to answer because prognosis in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) is best estimated by combining several clinical, molecular, radiographic, and treatment-related factors rather than relying on any single variable. Several validated prognostic models exist, but in cl...