Clinical outcome of stereotactic body radiotherapy for abdominal lymph node metastases

Abstract

Aims and background To report the clinical outcome of linac-based or robotic, image-guided stereotactic body radiotherapy in patients affected by abdominal lymph node metastases from different primary cancers. Methods and Methods Twenty-six patients with 32 abdominal lymph node metastases were consecutively treated at the University of Florence between April 2011 and May 2012. The mean follow-up was 4.6 months (SD, 3.9; range, 0.3–13). The dose prescription ranged between 24 Gy and 36 Gy delivered in 1–5 fractions. Results In terms of local control, complete response to stereotactic body radiotherapy was obtained in 18 cases (66.7%), partial response in 7 (25.9%), and stable disease in 2 (7.4%). At the Cox univariate regression analysis, an increased risk of partial response or absence of local response to radiotherapy was found for subjects of the female sex (P = 0.036), age less than 50 years (P = 0.022), primary tumor of the genital tract (P = 0.007), and previous chemotherapy (P = 0.057). An excellent local control rate (90.9%) was obtained in patients affected by abdominal lymph node metastases of prostatic origin. Conclusions Stereotactic body radiotherapy for abdominal lymph node metastases is a safe and effective treatment in terms of high rates of local control, especially in a subset of patients affected by prostate cancer.