Clinical Topics At ESTRO 27 (European Society For Therapeutic Radiology And Oncology)

Main Category: Radiology / Nuclear Medicine
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 22 Sep 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Radiation oncologists and other clinicians have comprised the majority of ESTRO's membership since it was founded in 1980. Over those 28 years cancer care has improved dramatically. The pace of change is arguably greater now than ever before, with new imaging modalities, medical informatics, genomics, targeted molecular therapies and in¬dividualized therapies.

So it comes as no surprise that in this section of the ESTRO 27 report we have a rich selection of papers on many of the themes cited above. Let me highlight some of these briefly.

Bourhis et al report the results of a randomised trial to evaluate the value of combining both acce¬lerated RT (Acc-RT) with or without concomitant CT in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). They conclude that conventional RT + CT provided the best ratio efficacy / tolerance, as compared to the 2 other arms.

Zackrisson et al report on a Swedish study. In 1998, a national group undertook a randomised controlled clinical study of accelerated fractiona¬tion (AF) testing its efficacy in the treatment of head and neck cancers. Their results will be used for establishing standards for treatment in Sweden and will serve as baseline for future studies.

The effectiveness of vaginal brachytherapy versus external beam pelvic radiotherapy for high-intermediate risk endometrial cancer has been assessed in a three year trail by Nout et al. They found that there were few vaginal relapses in both treatment arms, excluding a difference in vaginal relapse rate of more than 6% between the treatment arms.

Maranzano et al compare the effect of two radiotherapy treatment schedules for treating metastatic spinal cord compression. They found that a single fraction of 8 Gy is sufficient to achieve palliation in metastatic spinal cord com¬pression patients as already shown in several trials evaluating the best and more convenient radiotherapy regimen in uncomplicated painful bone metastases

Peiffert and colleagues report on the effects of induction chemotherapy (ICT) and dose intensi¬fication of the radiation boost in locally advanced anal canal carcinoma (LAACC). Combined ra¬diochemotherapy is the standard treatment of LAACC. Adding an ICT and a higher dose of irra¬diation boost (HDRT) are studied in a 4 arm trial, comparing the results in terms of colostomy free survival (CFS). The results will be analysed to better understand the high rate of local control for improvement of the colostomy free results.

These are just a few of the papers to be reported in detail during ESTRO 27. I'm sure that like me you will be keen to learn more about these studies.

Vincent Gregoire
Chairman of the programme committee
President of ESTRO

About ESTRO 27

ESTRO 27 (September 14th to 18th, 2008) offered an outstanding scientific programme combining lectures from eminent invited speakers, proffered papers and poster discussions, teaching lectures on a wide range of topics including clinical issues, brachytherapy, radiobiology, physics and technology as well as debates on controversial topics and clinical case discussions, a special poster reception, poster discussion sessions and electronic poster viewing.

ESTRO 27 hosted the largest European exhibition in Radiotherapy with participation from all the leading manufacturers.

ESTRO 27

ESTRO (European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology)