title: Hypofractionated adjuvant radiation therapy of soft-tissue sarcoma achieves excellent results in elderly patients.
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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hypofractionated adjuvant radiation appears to be an effective treatment in terms of local control in elderly and debilitated patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study might provide an alternative to commonly used standard fractionation of radiotherapy in sarcoma patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Ashdod, Israel.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Soyfer
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Corn
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kollender
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Issakov
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dadia
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Flusser
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bickels
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Meller
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Merimsky
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D019583:Dose Fractionation, Radiation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D016896:Treatment Outcome