Radiation Oncology
Expert insights on radiation treatment planning, techniques, toxicity management, and multimodal cancer care.
Recent Discussions
In a patient with gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma treated with neoadjuvant chemoimmunotherapy who had a good response but is unable to undergo surgery, how would you approach radiation therapy?
As the ARTDECO study did not show a difference in local control between 50.4 Gy and 61.6 Gy (given with carbo/taxol, but FOLFOX is also an option per PRODIGE5, depending on chemotherapy used as part of the initial chemo-IO), I would suggest 50.4 Gy.
When would you consider initial induction chemotherapy (e.g. FOLFOX) followed by neoadjuvant chemoradiation, over neoadjuvant chemoradiation alone, in patients with locally advanced rectal cancer?
At MSKCC, we now routinely recommend induction chemotherapy (8 cycles of FOLFOX) to any rectal cancer patient who requires preoperative chemoRT. Initially, we adopted this approach for patients with particularly bulky or node-positive disease (as per @Dr. First Last's answer above) but now do it for...
For marginal recurrences of skin cancers after prior hypofractionated radiation therapy (i.e., 30 Gy/5 fx, 55 Gy/20 fx) where there is concern for overlapping fields, could reirradiation with a hypofractionated course be considered?
For a marginal recurrence of a cutaneous malignancy after definitive hypofractionated RT, I would not necessarily offer reirradiation. I would have my plastic/dermatologic surgeon see the patient for consideration of surgical salvage, which may likely require an advanced reconstruction. If the patie...
How do you balance short-term efficacy against increased low-grade toxicity and quality-of-life considerations for higher single-fraction regimens in recurrent glioma patients?
When considering radiation options for recurrent glioma, in my mind, one size does not fit all. I consider several aspects of the specific patient’s clinical situation: Patient’s prior treatments: time interval, volume, location, and anatomic site, response to prior treatment, response duration from...
When do you prefer pre-operative SRS over post-operative SRS for brain metastases?
For patients with brain metastases that benefit from resection, our approach is to always treat pre-operatively unless the patient requires immediate surgical intervention. Pre-operative SRS has several advantages including clear target delineation. Post-op SRS has best results with expanded volumes...
Do you boost a breast cavity for a high Ki-67 index in the absence of other risk factors?
Ki-67 has some level of subjectivity with inter-individual variation. If genomic testing, like Oncotype or Mammaprint, has been done, I would favor using that to decide whether the patient is low risk or not over k1-67 alone.
Would you offer PMRT to a patient with potential metastatic disease?
If an additional ER scan is planned, I will wait to see the results. If there are unequivocal mets, I would not offer PMRT; otherwise, I would offer PMRT. If PMRT is offered, I will start endocrine therapy, but add the CDK4/6 inhibitor after RT is done.
How do you fractionate SBRT for NSCLC abutting the chest wall or in which the PTV encompasses part of the chest wall?
To reduce the incidence of chest wall pain, we typically treat lesions abutting chest wall to 70 Gy in 10 fractions. However, if the lesion is small (<3 cm), 50 Gy in 4 fractions can also be considered if we can meet the chest wall dose volume constraints (30 Gy < 30 CC ideally- if not, 30 Gy < 50 c...
How do you counsel patients about prognosis with FIGO 2018 IIIC cervix cancer managed in the new era of chemoradiation plus immunotherapy?
The prognosis is still a function of nodal location, number of nodes, local T stage, histology, and response to the EBRT portion of treatment. The local control is closer to 90% with a predominant pattern of failure being distant (around 20-25%). Also based on A-18, 3 years PFS is around 70% and OS ...
How would you manage new symptomatic brain metastases (10-15) in a young woman with HER2+ metastatic breast cancer?
A lot of nuance to answering this on a per-patient basis.First question, how symptomatic? (As in, are there bulky mets that we should be considering surgical management upfront plus this also guides my discussion about whole brain vs systemic)If not acutely symptomatic and requiring a crani/resectio...