Radiation Oncology
Expert insights on radiation treatment planning, techniques, toxicity management, and multimodal cancer care.
Recent Discussions
For incidentally found stage I indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in young patients, which subtypes would more strongly warrant a consideration for curative-intent radiation?
In general, national guidelines recommend definitive RT for early-stage, low-grade NHLs. These are a diverse collection of diseases with different natural histories and outcomes after treatment. In brief... 1. Follicular lymphoma - typically a disease of older adults with ~20% presenting with early-...
For plasmablastic lymphoma responsive to treatment except for a recurrent lymph node eroding into a vertebral body at the end of chemotherapy, would you cover the entire vertebral body in your CTV, or treat only the involved lymph node with a margin?
Plasmablastic lymphoma is an aggressive NHL that typically occurs in the H&N region, typically in immunosuppressed individuals. Most patients present with advanced disease. The role of RT is not firmly established. That said, in a patient only achieving a PR to systemic therapy with localized residu...
Would you offer a male patient adjuvant radiation for treatment of his breast cancer if his axillary dissection specimen shows a single node with isolated tumor cell(s) (ITC)?
If a male patient had a mastectomy with ITCs in a single node, I would not recommend adjuvant radiation.
Do you treat supraclavicular metastasis with SBRT?
I'd view this as nodal oligomet occurring in the supraclavicular area. I've treated patients with SC nodal met and I always try to push the dose to 40 Gy in 5 fxs if the brachial plexus (BP) tolerance can be respected. I typically use 30 Gy in 5 fxs as constraint for BP. This is for RT naive patient...
For NSCLCa patients who are found to have N2 disease at time of surgery, what treatment volume do you use for PORT?
A post operative "surprise N2" should not be a common occurrence. These patients warrant systemic chemotherapy first. They are, of course at risk for local and systemic failure, and it was not until Drouiilard's observation from the ANITA trial that we were invited back. Subsequently, it is agreed ...
How do you treat stage I head of pancreas adenocarcinoma in an older patient who is not a candidate for chemotherapy or surgery?
The question of how to manage an elderly patient who is not a candidate for chemotherapy or surgery is a really important one. I would argue that this question is not unique to an elderly patient but should be asked for ANY patient who cannot receive systemic therapy. We are fortunately living in a ...
How would you approach treatment for a cT1N0M0 urothelial carcinoma of the ureter, high grade in a non-surgical candidate due to medical comorbidities?
Although there is limited data using radiation therapy or chemo-radiation in UTUC, in a non-surgical candidate, this may be a reasonable approach to consider in selected patients. This would be an extrapolation from the promising data from RTOG 0926, a single arm, phase II trial investigating trimod...
Is there a role for radiation in palliating malignant small bowel obstruction?
This problem has similarities to the management of symptomatic brain metastases. In both cases, cancer has caused a buildup of pressure in a vital organ. In both cases, it would be important to take non-radiotherapeutic measures (steroids in the case of brain mets, upstream decompression for SBO) to...
Would you treat a patient with XRT after local recurrence after prostate cryoablation?
We have a strong urologic local therapy program at Duke, and consequently, we see local recurrence after cryotherapy and HIFU. I can say that in my experience these patients tolerate radiation similarly as those who have not had previous prostate therapy, although based on what little data is availa...
How would you manage a new suspected brain metastasis in a patient with a distant cancer history?
So I think there are some details missing but generally, if there is a suspected brain metastases in a patient with distance cancer history and that biopsy/resection is not feasible, I would consider additional workup including extracranial imaging. If the suspected brain metastases is asymptomatic ...