Clinical Outcomes of Dose-Escalated Hypofractionated External Beam Radiation Therapy (5 Gy × 5 Fractions) for Spine Metastasis

oleh: Jacob Y. Shin, MD, Noah J. Mathis, BS, Neil Ari Wijetunga, MD, PhD, Divya Yerramilli, MD, Daniel S. Higginson, MD, Adam M. Schmitt, MD, Daniel R. Gomez, MD, Yoshiya J. Yamada, MD, Jonathan T. Yang, MD, PhD

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Elsevier 2022-07-01

Deskripsi

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine the toxicities and outcomes of patients with spinal metastasis treated with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) to 25 Gy in 5 fractions. Methods and Materials: Data were extracted from an institutional tumor registry for patients with spinal metastasis who were treated with EBRT to 25 Gy in 5 fractions to their spinal lesion(s). Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses to determine local control and overall survival (OS) were employed. Results: Seventy-five patients with 86 total treated spinal metastatic tumors were identified. The median follow-up was 7 months. The median age was 66 years. Fifty-six patients (75.7%) experienced partial or complete pain relief for a median duration of 6 months (range, 1-33). Fifty-one (59.3%) cases were planned using intensity modulated radiation therapy while 19 (22.1%) employed 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy and 16 (18.6%) cases used nonconformal radiation technique. Greater than 90% of cases had a point dose maximum to the spinal cord/cauda equina <27.5 Gy. No patient experienced treatment-related myelopathy. The most common toxicities were fatigue (23.3%), pain flare (14.0%), and nausea (8.1%). There were no grade 3 toxicities. One-year local control was 80.6%, and 1-year OS was 38.4%. Higher Karnofsky performance status (P = .001) and radiosensitive tumor histology (P = .014) were significant predictors for better OS. Conclusions: Our single-institutional retrospective analysis of patients with spinal metastasis suggested that palliative EBRT to 25 Gy in 5 fractions is safe, with a low toxicity profile and minimal risk for myelopathy with an achievable dose maximum to the spinal cord and cauda equina ≤27 Gy (equivalent total dose in 2-Gy fractions ≤50 Gy), and it may provide durable palliation and local control in cases where stereotactic body radiation therapy may not be indicated.