Acta oncologica
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The purpose of this study is to review late toxicity following craniospinal radiation for early-stage medulloblastoma. ⋯ Ongoing institutional and cooperative group efforts to minimize radiation exposure are justified given the high rate of serious toxicity observed in our long-term survivors. Follow-up through long-term multidisciplinary clinics is important and warranted for all patients exposed to radiotherapy in childhood.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Weight loss, appetite loss and food intake in cancer patients with cancer cachexia: three peas in a pod? - analysis from a multicenter cross sectional study.
How to assess cachexia is a barrier both in research and in clinical practice. This study examines the need for assessing both reduced food intake and loss of appetite, to see if these variables can be used interchangeably. A secondary aim is to assess the variance explained by food intake, appetite and weight loss by using tumor-related factors, symptoms and biological markers as explanatory variables. ⋯ Both appetite loss and food intake should be assessed in cachectic patients since conscious control of eating may sometimes overcome appetite loss. The low explained variance for weight loss is probably caused by the need for more knowledge about metabolism and inflammation, and is consistent with the cancer cachexia definition that claims that in cachexia weight loss is not caused by reduced food intake alone. The questions concerning appetite loss from EORTC-QLQ C30 and food intake from PG-SGA seem practical and informative when dealing with advanced cancer patients.
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A mathematical framework is presented for simultaneously quantifying and evaluating the trade-off between tumor control and late complications for risk-based radiation therapy (RT) decision-support. To demonstrate this, we estimate life years lost (LYL) attributable to tumor recurrence, late cardiac toxicity and secondary cancers for standard-risk pediatric medulloblastoma (MB) patients and compare the effect of dose re-distribution on a common scale. ⋯ Optimization of RT prescription strategies considering both late complications and the risk of recurrence, an all-cause mortality dose painting approach, was demonstrated. The risk-adapted techniques compared favorably to the standard, and although in this context, the gain is small compared to estimated uncertainty, this study demonstrates a framework for all-cause mortality risk estimation, rather than evaluates direct clinical applicability of risk-adapted strategies.