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. 2013 Aug;86(1028):20130258.
doi: 10.1259/bjr.20130258. Epub 2013 May 24.

Hypofractionated adjuvant radiation therapy of soft-tissue sarcoma achieves excellent results in elderly patients

V Soyfer  1 , B W Corn, Y Kollender, J Issakov, S Dadia, G Flusser, J Bickels, I Meller, O Merimsky
Affiliations

Hypofractionated adjuvant radiation therapy of soft-tissue sarcoma achieves excellent results in elderly patients

V Soyfer et al. Br J Radiol. 2013 Aug.

Abstract

Objective: Adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) is an essential part of combined limb-sparing treatment of soft-tissue sarcoma (STS). Elderly or medically unfit patients often have difficulty in completing 6-7 weeks of standard fractionated daily treatment. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of a hypofractionated adjuvant approach with RT for STS in elderly and debilitated patients.

Methods: 21 elderly patients were treated with a short course of adjuvant RT (39-48 Gy, 3 Gy per fraction) for STS. The medical records of the patients were retrospectively reviewed for local or distant recurrence and side effects of RT.

Results: At a mean 26 months of follow-up, three local recurrences (14%) were detected. Eight patients (38%) had lung metastases during the observed period. Three of them died from metastatic disease. The hypofractionated radiation was well tolerated with minimum long-term side effects.

Conclusion: Hypofractionated adjuvant radiation appears to be an effective treatment in terms of local control in elderly and debilitated patients.

Advances in knowledge: The results of this study might provide an alternative to commonly used standard fractionation of radiotherapy in sarcoma patients.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Overall and disease-free survival of patients with soft-tissue sarcoma treated by hypofractionated radiation therapy. DMFS, distant metastases free survival; LocRecFS, local regional free survival; OS, overall survival; RT, radiotherapy.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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