scout

Oncology Vol 29 No 4_Suppl_1

Cetuximab may be considered as an alternative to cisplatin with concurrent RT, particularly for patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who are not candidates for platinum therapy. These results indicate no difference in patterns of local or distant failure between cetuximab, low-dose weekly cisplatin, or q3 weekly high-dose cisplatin in this patient population.

Excellent 5-year oncologic and functional outcomes were achieved for patients presented in the study. The use of altered fractionation, concurrent chemotherapy, and different radiation techniques did not show any significant differences in outcomes. However, the reduced radiation dose delivered to the carotid arteries using IMRT suggests that it is potentially advantageous for reduction of long-term vascular toxicity and is therefore recommended as the treatment of choice.

We confirm that analysis of routine CT scans for sarcopenia can predict outcomes for HNSCC patients. Pre-RT sarcopenia is associated with more poor outcomes for nonoperated patients and post-RT sarcopenia for all HNSCC patients. Post-RT sarcopenia, as measured by routine CT, outperformed simple weight loss and BMI-derived cachexia metrics, because loss of lean muscle mass can occur independently of BMI status. These findings suggest the potential benefit for investigating intervention with aggressive nutritional and physiatric methods to prevent sarcopenia during RT and to study how these interventions might affect outcomes in nonoperated, pre-RT sarcopenia patients.

OGCC can exhibit aggressive progression, warranting investigation into multimodal therapy. Given that adjuvant chemoradiation and immunotherapy are associated with improved outcomes in primary head and neck cancer, a similar application in OGCC may help guide optimal treatment. This approach was well tolerated in our pediatric patient, and he remains disease-free at 14 months.

This report of adjuvant RT for pediatric salivary gland tumors is one of the largest to date and the only one to document outcomes following proton therapy. Compared with conventional photon/electron-based therapy, proton therapy significantly reduced doses to multiple normal tissues. Moreover, clinically, no grade 3 toxicities were observed in the proton group vs 45% in the photon/electron cohort. Continued follow-up is required to determine long-term outcomes.

Our results suggest that p16 overexpression can act as a marker for PFS and LRC in EBV-positive nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. This interesting finding raises the possibility of further stratifying more aggressive phenotypes within EBV-positive tumors. Therefore, molecular testing of p16 expression may complement EBV status to provide more detailed and comprehensive guidance in determining the prognosis and predicting treatment outcomes for patients diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.