Hyperfractionated or accelerated radiotherapy in lung cancer

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22753901

J Clin Oncol. 2012 Aug 1;30(22):2788-97. Epub 2012 Jul 2.

Hyperfractionated or accelerated radiotherapy in lung cancer: an individual patient data meta-analysis.

Mauguen A, Le Péchoux C, Saunders MI, Schild SE, Turrisi AT, Baumann M, Sause WT, Ball D, Belani CP, Bonner JA, Zajusz A, Dahlberg SE, Nankivell M,Mandrekar SJ, Paulus R, Behrendt K, Koch R, Bishop JF, Dische S, Arriagada R, De Ruysscher D, Pignon JP.

Source

Institut de Cance´rologie Gustave-Roussy, Villejuif, France.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

In lung cancer, randomized trials assessing hyperfractionated or accelerated radiotherapy seem to yield conflicting results regarding the effects on overall (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS). The Meta-Analysis of Radiotherapy in Lung Cancer Collaborative Group decided to address the role of modified radiotherapy fractionation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

We performed an individual patient data meta-analysis in patients with nonmetastatic lung cancer, which included trials comparing modified radiotherapy with conventional radiotherapy.

RESULTS:

In non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC; 10 trials, 2,000 patients), modified fractionation improved OS as compared with conventional schedules (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.88, 95% CI, 0.80 to 0.97; P = .009), resulting in an absolute benefit of 2.5% (8.3% to 10.8%) at 5 years. No evidence of heterogeneity between trials was found. There was no evidence of a benefit on PFS (HR = 0.94; 95% CI, 0.86 to 1.03; P = .19). Modified radiotherapy reduced deaths resulting from lung cancer (HR = 0.89; 95% CI, 0.81 to 0.98; P = .02), and there was a nonsignificant reduction of non-lung cancer deaths (HR = 0.87; 95% CI, 0.66 to 1.15; P = .33). In small-cell lung cancer (SCLC; two trials, 685 patients), similar results were found: OS, HR = 0.87, 95% CI, 0.74 to 1.02, P = .08; PFS, HR = 0.88, 95% CI, 0.75 to 1.03, P = .11. In both NSCLC and SCLC, the use of modified radiotherapy increased the risk of acute esophageal toxicity (odds ratio [OR] = 2.44 in NSCLC and OR = 2.41 in SCLC; P < .001) but did not have an impact on the risk of other acute toxicities.

CONCLUSION:

Patients with nonmetastatic NSCLC derived a significant OS benefit from accelerated or hyperfractionated radiotherapy; a similar but nonsignificant trend was observed for SCLC. As expected, there was increased acute esophageal toxicity.