Unanticipated frequency and consequences of regimen-related diarrhea in patients being treated with radiation or chemoradiation regimens for cancers of the head and neck or lung (original) (raw)
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Overview of radiation- and chemoradiation-induced diarrhea
Seminars in Oncology Nursing, 2003
RID is a frequent complication of pelvic radiation, both when given alone and with chemotherapy. RID can significantly affect patient quality of life. Since diarrhea may be a difficult topic for patients to discuss, special care needs to be taken to avoid underdiagnosis of this problem.
Radiotherapy and Oncology, 2021
Background and purpose: A comprehensive individual toxicity risk profile is needed to improve radiation treatment optimisation, minimising toxicity burden, in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. We aimed to develop and externally validate NTCP models for various toxicities at multiple time points. Materials and methods: Using logistic regression, we determined the relationship between normal tissue irradiation and the risk of 22 toxicities at ten time points during and after treatment in 750 HNC patients. The toxicities involved swallowing, salivary, mucosal, speech, pain and general complaints. Studied predictors included patient, tumour and treatment characteristics and dose parameters of 28 organs. The resulting NTCP models were externally validated in 395 HNC patients. Results: The NTCP models involved 14 organs that were associated with at least one toxicity. The oral cavity was the predominant organ, associated with 12 toxicities. Other important organs included the parotid and submandibular glands, buccal mucosa and swallowing muscles. In addition, baseline toxicity, treatment modality, and tumour site were common predictors of toxicity. The median discrimination performance (AUC) of the models was 0.71 (interquartile range: 0.68-0.75) at internal validation and 0.67 (interquartile range: 0.62-0.71) at external validation. Conclusion: We established a comprehensive individual toxicity risk profile that provides essential insight into how radiation exposure of various organs translates into multiple acute and late toxicities. This comprehensive understanding of radiation-induced toxicities enables a new radiation treatment optimisation concept that balances multiple toxicity risks simultaneously and minimises the overall toxicity burden for an individual HNC patient who needs to undergo radiation treatment.
Radiotherapy and Oncology, 2014
Background: To investigate potential dose-response relationship between radiation-associated nausea and vomiting (RANV) reported during radiotherapy and candidate nausea/vomiting-associated regions of interest (CNV-ROIs) in head and neck (HNC) squamous cell carcinomas. Methods and material: A total of 130 patients treated with IMRT with squamous cell carcinomas of head and neck were evaluated. For each patient, CNV-ROIs were segmented manually on planning CT images. Clinical on-treatment RANV data were reconstructed by a review of the records for all patients. Dosimetric data parameters were recorded from dose-volume histograms. Nausea and vomiting reports were concatenated as a single binary ''Any N/V'' variable, and as a ''CTC-V2+'' variable. Results: The mean dose to CNV-ROIs was higher for patients experiencing RANV events. For patients receiving IMRT alone, a dose-response effect was observed with varying degrees of magnitude, at a statistically significant level for the area postrema, brainstem, dorsal vagal complex, medulla oblongata, solitary nucleus, oropharyngeal mucosa and whole brain CNV-ROIs. Conclusion: RANV is a common therapy-related morbidity facing patients receiving HNC radiotherapy, and, for those receiving radiotherapy-alone, is associated with modifiable dose to specific CNS structures.
International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, 2002
Purpose: Although the somatostatin analog octreotide is currently used in the treatment of chemotherapyinduced diarrhea and secretory diarrhea associated with various disorders, its role in the management of radiation enteritis is not well defined. We performed a randomized study that compared octreotide acetate with diphenoxylate hydrochloride plus atropine sulfate, the drug commonly used as therapy for acute radiationinduced diarrhea (ARID). Methods and Materials: Sixty-one patients with Grade 2 (four to six stools per day) or Grade 3 (> seven stools per day, National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria) diarrhea associated with pelvic radiotherapy were assigned randomly to receive octreotide s.c., 100 g three times daily (n ؍ 33) or diphenoxylate and atropine orally, 2.5 mg four times daily (n ؍ 28). Radiotherapy was delivered to all patients in a conventional manner, with high-energy photons in a total dose >45 Gy, which exceeds the tolerance of intestine. Overall, there was no significant difference in patient characteristics or radiotherapy applied between the two arms. Patients were evaluated daily for the primary study end point, resolution of diarrhea, as well as for interruption of pelvic radiotherapy. Results: Within 3 days, ARID completely resolved in 20 patients in the octreotide arm (2 within the first day, 11 within the second day, and 7 within the third day) vs. only 4 (all within the second day of therapy) in the diphenoxylate arm (p ؍ 0.002). On the diphenoxylate arm, 15/28 patients were required to discontinue pelvic radiotherapy; on the octreotide arm, 6/33 patients were required to discontinue pelvic radiotherapy for an average of 1.89 ؎ 0.5 and 0.45 ؎ 0.2 days, respectively (p ؍ 0.003). No side effects were observed in either arm. Three patients on the diphenoxylate arm and only 1 on the octreotide arm required further treatment for parenteral replenishment of fluids and electrolytes or other antidiarrheal treatments. Conclusion: Octreotide seems to be more effective than conventional therapy with diphenoxylate and atropine in controlling ARID and eliminating the need for radiotherapy interruptions. © 2002 Elsevier Science Inc.
Gastrointestinal toxicity associated to radiation therapy
Clinical & Translational Oncology, 2010
Radiation therapy in combination with other treatments, such as surgery and chemotherapy, increases locoregional control and survival in patients with thoracic, abdominal and pelvic malignancies. Nevertheless, significant clinical toxicity with combined treatments may be seen in these patients. With the advent of tridimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT), dose-volume histograms (DVH) can be generated to assess the dose received by the organs at risk. The possible relationship between these parameters and clinical, anatomical and, more recently, genetic factors has to be considered. Treatment options include initial conservative medical therapies, endoscopic procedures, hyperbaric oxygen and surgery. Some pharmacological agents to prevent gastrointestinal toxicity are under investigation.
International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics, 2012
Purpose: One of the worst radiation-induced acute effects in treating head-and-neck (HN) cancer is grade 3 or higher acute (oral and pharyngeal) mucosal toxicity (AMT), caused by the killing/depletion of mucosa cells. Here we aim to testing a predictive model of the AMT in HN cancer patients receiving different radiotherapy schedules. Methods and Materials: Various radiotherapeutic schedules have been reviewed and classified as tolerable or intolerable based on AMT severity. A modified normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) model has been investigated to describe AMT data in radiotherapy regimens, both conventional and altered in dose and overall treatment time (OTT). We tested the hypothesis that such a model could also be applied to identify intolerable treatment and to predict AMT. This AMT NTCP model has been compared with other published predictive models to identify schedules that are either tolerable or intolerable. The area under the curve (AUC) was calculated for all models, assuming treatment tolerance as the gold standard. The correlation between AMT and the predicted toxicity rate was assessed by a Pearson correlation test. Results: The AMT NTCP model was able to distinguish between acceptable and intolerable schedules among the data available for the study (AUC Z 0.84, 95% confidence interval Z 0.75-0.92). In the equivalent dose at 2 Gy/fraction (EQD2) vs OTT space, the proposed model shows a trend similar to that of models proposed by other authors, but was superior in detecting some intolerable schedules. Moreover, it was able to predict the incidence of !G3 AMT. Conclusion: The proposed model is able to predict !G3 AMT after HN cancer radiotherapy, and could be useful for designing altered/hypofractionated schedules to reduce the incidence of AMT. Ó 2012 Elsevier Inc.