Localized metastatic site treatment safe for patients

Radiotherapy was beneficial to patients with low-volume metastatic cancer who failed standard therapy, according to recent data.

Researchers from the University of Chicago studied 29 patients between November 2004 and March 2007. Patients had confirmed stage IV cancer with one to five metastatic sites. There were 56 metastatic lesions among the 29 patients. The lesions were assigned to one of five anatomic regions: lung, liver, abdominal, head and neck, and extremity.

The starting radiation dose for all lesions was 24 Gy, delivered in three 8-Gy fractions. The maximum dose was 60 Gy in three 20-Gy fractions. The median follow-up was 14.9 months.

The radiographic/metabolic response rate of the radiated lesions was 59%; 55.4% of tumors had a complete response, and 3.6% had a partial response. The median duration of response was 7.8 months. At the last follow-up, 57% of treated tumors had not progressed. At a median follow-up of 14.4 months, 21% of patients had not yet shown disease progression.

Two patients experienced ≥ grade-3 acute toxicity (radiation pneumonitis and nausea), and only one patient experienced chronic grade-3 toxicity: a gastrointestinal hemorrhage, according to the researchers.

Clin Cancer Res. 2008;14:5255-5259.