SBRT Safe, Efficacious for Treatment of NSCLC Tumors At Least 5 cm

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is a safe and efficacious treatment option for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose tumors measure at least 5 cm, according to a study published in Cancer.¹

Researchers led by Vivek Verma, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha evaluated data from 92 patients with primary NSCLC who had tumors measuring at least 5 cm and without evidence of distant/lymph node metastasis. Patients had undergone SBRT using up to fractions.

Median follow-up was 12 months, or 15 months among survivors. Median age among patients was 73 years; median tumor size was 5.4 cm.

The researchers found that actuarial local control rates were 95.7% at 1 year and 73.2% at 2 years, while the disease-free survival rates were 72.1% at 1 year and 53.5% at 2 years.

The 1-year disease-specific survival rate was 95.5% and the 2-year disease-specific survival rate was 78.6%. With a median survival rate of 21.4 months, patients had a 1-year overall survival rate of 76.2% and a 2-year overall survival rate of 4.64%.

Upon multivariate analysis, the researchers found that lung cancer history and pre-SBRT positron emission tomography maximum standardized uptake value were associated with overall survival.

Thirty-three percent of post-treatment failures were found in distant tumors, as well as 26% that were local and 23% that occurred elsewhere in the lung.

Reference

1. Verma V, Shostrom VK, Kumar SS, et al. Multi-institutional experience of stereotactic body radiotherapy for large (≥ centimeters) non-small cell lung tumors. Cancer. 2016 Oct 14. doi: 10.1002/cncr.30375 [Epub ahead of print]