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Björn Zackrisson,
Per Nilsson,
Elisabeth Kjellén,
Karl-Axel Johansson,
Hans Modig,
Eva Brun,
Jan Nyman,
Signe Friesland, Johan Reizenstein,
Helena Sjödin, [......],
Claes Mercke,
Jan-Olof Fernberg,
Lars Franzén,
Anders Ask,
Essie Persson,
Gun Wickart-Johansson,
Freddi Lewin,
Lena Wittgren,
Ove Björ,
Thomas Björk-Eriksson
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Studies on accelerated fractionation (AF) in head and neck cancer have shown increased local control and survival compared with conventional fractionation (CF), while others have been non-conclusive. In 1998 a national Swedish group decided to perform a randomised controlled clinical study of AF.
Patients with verified squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx (except glottic T1-T2, N0) and hypopharynx were included. Patients with prior chemotherapy or surgery were excluded. Patients were randomised to either CF (2Gy/day, 5days/week for 7 weeks, total dose 68Gy) or to AF (1.1Gy+2.0Gy/day, 5days/week for 4.5weeks, total dose 68Gy). An extensive quality assurance protocol was followed throughout the study. The primary end point was loco-regional tumour control (LRC) at two years after treatment.
The study was closed in 2006 when 750 patients had been randomised. Eighty-three percent of the patients had stages III-IV disease. Forty eight percent had oropharyngeal, 21% laryngeal, 17% hypopharyngeal and 14% oral cancers. There were no significant differences regarding overall survival (OS) or LRC between the two regimens. The OS at two years was 68% for AF and 67% for CF. The corresponding figures for LRC were 71% and 67%, respectively. There was a trend towards improved LRC for oral cancers treated (p=0.07) and for large tumours (T3-T4) (p=0.07) treated with AF. The AF group had significantly worse acute reactions, while there was no significant increase in late effects.
Overall the AF regimen did not prove to be more efficacious than CF. However, the trend towards improved results in AF for oral cancers needs to be further investigated.
Radiotherapy and Oncology 02/2011; 100(1):41-8. · 5.58 Impact Factor
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Karl-Axel Johansson,
Per Nilsson,
Björn Zackrisson,
Birgitta Ohlson,
Elisabeth Kjellén,
Claes Mercke,
Mauricio Alvarez-Fonseca,
Anette Billström,
Thomas Björk-Eriksson,
Ove Björ, [......],
Lena Lundkvist,
Per-Olov Löfroth,
Kerstin Löfvander-Thapper,
Alla Nilsson,
Jan Nyman,
Essie Persson, Johan Reizenstein,
Hans-Olov Rosenbrand,
Fredrik Wiklund,
Lena Wittgren
[show abstract]
[hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: This paper describes the quality assurance (QA) work performed in the Swedish multicenter ARTSCAN (Accelerated RadioTherapy of Squamous cell CArcinomas in the head and Neck) trial to guarantee high quality in a multicenter study which involved modern radiotherapy such as 3DCRT or IMRT.
The study was closed in June 2006 with 750 randomised patients. Radiation therapy-related data for every patient were sent by each participating centre to the QA office where all trial data were reviewed, analysed and stored. In case of any deviation from the protocol, an interactive process was started between the QA office and the local responsible clinician and/or physicist to increase the compliance to the protocol for future randomised patients. Meetings and workshops were held on a regular basis for discussions on various trial-related issues and for the QA office to report on updated results.
This review covers the 734 patients out of a total of 750 who had entered the study. Deviations early in the study were corrected so that the overall compliance to the protocol was very high. There were only negligible variations in doses and dose distributions to target volumes for each specific site and stage. The quality of the treatments was high. Furthermore, an extensive database of treatment parameters was accumulated for future dose-volume vs. endpoint evaluations.
This comprehensive QA programme increased the probability to draw firm conclusions from our study and may serve as a concept for QA work in future radiotherapy trials where comparatively small effects are searched for in a heterogeneous tumour population.
Radiotherapy and Oncology 06/2008; 87(2):290-9. · 5.58 Impact Factor
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Georg Holgersson,
Simon Ekman, Johan Reizenstein,
Michael Bergqvist,
Fredrik Pontén,
Mattias Uhlén,
Kristina Magnusson,
Pallavi Jonnalagadda,
Anna Asplund,
Sara Strömberg,
Arne Linder,
Erik Blomquist,
Martin Liljeholm,
Britta Lödén,
Karin Hellström,
Stefan Bergström
[show abstract]
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ABSTRACT: To explore the usefulness of the expression of five potential cancer biomarkers in predicting outcome in patients with laryngeal cancer.
In the present study, the Swedish National Cancer Registry databases were used to identify patients with laryngeal cancer diagnosed during the years 1978-2004 in the Uppsala-Orebro region and treated with radiotherapy. The expression of Ki-67, MutS homolog 2, (MSH2), p53, B-cell CLL/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) and cyclin D1 in the cancer cells was assessed immunohistochemically using tissue microarrays (TMAs) and its predicitve value on survival and relapse was analyzed using Cox regression models.
A total of 39 patients were included in the present study. Nuclear MSH2 staining was statistically significantly correlated to Ki-67 expression (p=0.022). However, univariate and multivariate Cox analyses showed no statistically significant association between the expression of the investigated biomarkers and overall survival or relapse.
The present exploratory study does not show any significant predictive value of the biomarkers examined with respect to survival or relapse. However, with larger patient cohorts, we believe that protein profiling using TMAs and immunohistochemistry is a feasible strategy for prognostic and predictive biomarker screening in laryngeal cancer.
Cancer genomics & proteomics. 7(1):1-7.
