Response to low-dose involved-field radiotherapy in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to analyze response to palliative low-dose involved-field radiotherapy (LD-IF-RT) (two 2-Gy fractions), explore factors predicting for response, and determine the time course to subsequent treatment.


METHODS
Thirty-three patients with advanced or recurrent indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) received LD-IF-RT to 43 sites. Response was assessed by physical examination and radiographic studies. Median follow-up for individual sites was 14 months. Fisher's exact test was used to evaluate prognostic factors for response and in-field progression.


RESULTS
Overall response was 95%. Thirty-six sites (84%) had a complete response (CR), five sites (12%) had a partial response, and two sites (5%) had progressive disease. The CR rate of head and neck sites was significantly higher than that of pelvic and/or inguinofemoral sites (95% versus 64%, P = 0.04). The CR rate was significantly higher for sites < or =40 mm than for sites >40 mm (90% versus 56%, P = 0.04). Ten sites (23%) had in-field progression diagnosed at a median of 9 months. Sixteen patients (48%) received systemic treatment at a median of 8 months. Fourteen patients (42%) did not require additional treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
LD-IF-RT for selected NHL subtypes has excellent local CR and in-field control rates and may postpone the need for systemic therapy.
Luthy
S K
SK
Department of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Ng
A K
AK
Silver
B
B
Degnan
K O
KO
Fisher
D C
DC
Freedman
A S
AS
Mauch
P M
PM
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008228:Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000532:radiotherapy; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D011379:Prognosis; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies