IMRT reduces acute hematologic and GI toxicity compared with standard treatment, with promising therapeutic outcomes. Positron emission tomography IG-IMRT reduces the incidence of acute neutropenia.
SummaryWe performed an international phase II trial to test the Purpose: To test the hypothesis that intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) reduces acute hematologic and gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity for patients with locoregionally advanced cervical cancer. hypothesis that intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) would reduce the acute toxicity for locoregionally advanced cervical cancer. For the 83 patients enrolled, acute gastrointestinal toxicity was significantly reduced with both IMRT and positron emission tomography-guided bone marrow sparing IMRT (IG-IMRT) compared with historical controls. The incidence of neutropenia was significantly reduced in patients who underwent IG-IMRT. We conclude that IMRT reduces acute toxicity compared with standard treatment in this population and that IG-IMRT warrants testing in randomized trials.Methods and Materials: We enrolled patients with stage IB-IVA cervical carcinoma in a single-arm phase II trial involving 8 centers internationally. All patients received weekly cisplatin concurrently with once-daily IMRT, followed by intracavitary brachytherapy, as indicated. The primary endpoint was the occurrence of either acute grade !3 neutropenia or clinically significant GI toxicity within 30 days of completing chemoradiation therapy. A preplanned subgroup analysis tested the hypothesis that positron emission tomography-based image-guided IMRT (IG-IMRT) would lower the risk of acute neutropenia. We also longitudinally assessed patients' changes in quality of life. Results: From October 2011 to April 2015, 83 patients met the eligibility criteria and initiated protocol therapy. The median follow-up was 26.0 months. The incidence of any primary event was 26.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] 18.2%-36.9%), significantly lower than the 40% incidence hypothesized a priori from historical data (PZ.012). The incidence of grade !3 neutropenia and clinically significant GI toxicity was 19.3% (95% CI 12.2%-29.0%) and 12.0% (95% CI 6.7%-20.8%), respectively. Compared with patients treated without IG-IMRT (nZ48), those treated with IG-IMRT (nZ35) had a significantly lower incidence of grade !3 neutropenia (8.6% vs 27.1%; 2-sided c 2 PZ.035) and nonsignificantly lower incidence of grade !3 leukopenia (25.7% vs 41.7%; PZ.13) and any grade !3 hematologic toxicity (31.4% vs 43.8%; PZ.25). Conclusions: IMRT reduces acute hematologic and GI toxicity compared with standard treatment, with promising therapeutic outcomes. Positron emission tomography IG-IMRT reduces the incidence of acute neutropenia. Ó
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