Head and neck cancer (HNC) as a disease and its treatment have a disproportionate impact on all aspects of patients' quality of life (QOL). QOL is a multidimensional construct of an individual's subjective assessment of the impact of an illness or treatment on his/her physical, psychological, social and somatic functioning and general well-being [1]. Thus, QOL has become an important treatment outcome in HNC [2]. Objective: It is to evaluate the quality of life of patients dealing with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated in the radiotherapy department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. Material and methods: Starting from March 2012 to December 2013, 87 patients with histopathologically proven Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) were taking part in our prospective study. The patients' QOL answers to the questionnaire were collected for both the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC Head and Neck questionnaires (QLQ-H&N35) and then all points were transformed to a 0 -100 scale according to the guidelines of the EORTC. Certain clinical factors were chosen to evaluate their effect on the QOL; site of primary tumor, clinical stage, and mode of therapy applied: radiotherapy versus chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). Moreover, age, gender and smoking were studied. Results: Majority of the items assessed in the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35 questionnaire showed that they were negatively impacted at the end of treatment. As for the factors that had a negative effect on the QOL, they comprised; female gender (p < 0.05), age < 60 years (p < 0.05), smoking (p < 0.01), clinical stage III and IV (p < 0.05), larynx and hypopharynx as a site of primary (p < 0.01), and CRT (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Results of our study showed that treatment options had a significant negative effect on the QOL by the end of the treatment course. Moreover, our results showed that age, gender, smoking habit, tumor site, and clinical stage of disease had a significant impact on the QOL of HNSCC patients.

Background: The optimal dose of palliative radiotherapy (RT) in symptomatic advanced lung cancer is unclear. Patients and methods: Patients with advanced NSCLC who were indicated for thoracic palliative RT with age up to 65 y and Performance Status (PS) 0-2 and no significant cardiac or lung co-morbidities were randomized into two fractionation arms: arm A: 30 Gy/10 over 2 weeks and arm B: 27 Gy/6 over 3 weeks (2 fractions per week) using 2 anterior posterior (AP-PA) fields in both arms. Primary end points were symptomatic and radiological tumor response, respiratory functions assessment. Secondary end point was toxicity. Results: From December 2014 to October 2015, 40 patients were randomized, 20 patients in each arm. There was statistically insignificant higher symptomatic improvement in arm B. Four weeks after treatment, 12 out of 40 patients (30%), 6 patients in each arm, had radiological Partial Response (PR) of the primary thoracic lesion without significant difference between the two arms. There was a tendency for improvement in the post treatment mean Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) and Forced Expiratory Volume in one second (FEV1) in each arm without statistical significance. There were no reported skin reactions or esophagitis in both arms up to 4 weeks after treatment. Eleven out of the 40 patients (27.5%), 6 in arm B and 5 in arm A, had radiological signs of radiation pneumonitis without significant difference between both arms. Conclusion: The two RT fractionation schedules showed equal efficacy in terms of symptoms relief, radiological response of the primary thoracic tumor, respiratory functions and toxicity. Thus the 27 Gy/6 fractionation arm appears preferable compared to 30 Gy/10 arm to minimize the patients' visits and load on the machines.

Aim of Work: The aim of this work was to study the clinico-epidemiological characteristics of the patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), analyse the prognostic factors of the disease and to analyse the results of different treatment modalities and their effect on loco-regional, distal metastatic disease control and both overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) rates. Patients and Methods: This is a retrospective study reviewing all adult nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients who presented to the radiotherapy department-National Cancer Institute Cairo University in the period from (2000-2010). Results: In this study, it was found that the mean age was 45 years; most of the patients were of locally advanced stages. Multivariate cox proportional hazards regression identified T-stage, radiotherapy course completion & addition of chemotherapy as independent prognostic factors for local control (LC), DFS, & OS. The 5-year LC, DFS and OS rates for all studied patients were 38.2%, 33.5% & 37.2% respectively. The median DFS was 26 months and median OS was 36.5 months. Conclusion: This study matches the published data that support that radical concurrent chemoradiation is the mainstay of treatment of locally advanced NPC, & that T-stage, M-stage, prescribed dose completion, response to initial treatment are independent prognostic factors for survival. All measures should be taken to improve the local response during primary treatment as this will improve survival rates of patients with NPC.

Purpose: This work was to study the clinic-epidemiological characteristics of patients with locally advanced NCSLC and to analyze their prognostic factors and also the results of different treatment modalities for local control and their effect on overall survival (OAS). Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study including 121 patients with primary locally advanced NSCLC diagnosed between 2001 and 2010 at the radiotherapy department , National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Egypt. Results: The study showed significant correlation between the tumor size < 7 cm, old age > 60, moderately differentiated tumors G2 and treatment outcomes; better locoregional control and better survival rates. On the opposite side poorly differentiated tumors G3, tumor size > 7 cm had the worst locoregional control and survival rates. The study also showed significant statistical correlation between treatment modality, locoregional control and survival rates. Patients who were treated by either concommitent chemo-radiotherapy or sequential chemo-radiotherapy had better local control compared to other patients who were treated by radical radiotherapy, and they also had the best survival rates among all the other treatment groups. The average 6 months OAS rates for all studied patients were 60.3% while 12 months survival rates were 38.8%. The median OAS was 7 months. Conclusions: From the present study, we concluded that concomitant chemo-radiotherapy is the treatment of choice for locally advanced non small cell lung cancer; also we concluded that better performance status and higher hemoglobin levels have better treatment outcome in these cases.

Purpose: Adjuvant radiation therapy could reduce loco regional failure, but currently has no defined role because of previously reported morbidity. NCI-Cairo routine work is to give adjuvant PORT for locally advanced bladder carcinoma patients. The aim of this work is to re-evaluate this protocol regarding its effect on prognosis and complications. Patients and Method: A retrospective study included 208 patients with pathologically proven bladder cancer who presented to the NCI, Cairo University from 2007-2011. All of them underwent RC with bilateral PLND followed by conventional post-operative radiotherapy in 2-6 weeks after surgery for 5000 cGy in 25 fractions, over 5 weeks using 2D technique. Analysis of data from their files was done for the treatment results, prognostic factors and complications. Results: Three years overall survival (OS) and disease free survival (DFS) for the whole group was ~60%, and 54% respectively in favour of the female gender, non-smokers, Squamous cell carcinoma patients, low grade tumours (grade 1 and 2) negative margins, N0, pT2b and early stage group showed the best prognoses. The 3 years metastases free survival (MFS) was ~71%. Only four factors showed a significant relation with the MFS which were the grade, LN status, T-stage and group staging. The local recurrence rate (LRC) at 2 years for the whole group was ~95% and 94% at 3 years. Only surgical margin status and extent of LN dissection had a significant impact on the LRC. Conclusions: Adjuvant radiotherapy shows sustained improvement in the loco regional control, and should be recommended for patients with locally advanced disease especially those with less than 10 dissected lymph nodes and those with positive