Introduction: Adjuvant therapy in osteosarcoma (OS) and Ewing's sarcoma (ES) is primarily directed towards treatment of subclinical lung disease. Before the advent of modern intensive chemotherapy, lung irradiation was the only available adjuvant treatment. It has proven biological activity and low morbidity. There is, however, a wide variation in its application between centres. This systematic review aims to define the evidence to support the use of lung irradiation in these diseases.
Design: A review of trials published between 1966 and 2000 was undertaken to determine the evidence for the use of pulmonary irradiation in OS and ES.
Results: Several small series of prophylactic lung irradiation (PLI) have been reported, most from over 20 years ago. These studies support the theoretical basis for the use of PLI in both OS and ES. Few randomised studies have been performed which include PLI. In OS, studies demonstrated a trend in favour of PLI compared with no adjuvant treatment and, subsequently, a level of benefit similar to that achieved with chemotherapy, but no additive effect. No studies have used PLI in addition to current standard chemotherapy regimens, or evaluated its use after successful metastatectomy. In ES, only one randomised study has addressed the role of PLI, in a comparison with vincristine, actinomycin D and cyclophosphamide combination chemotherapy with or without doxorubicin. Prolonged follow-up favoured four-drug chemotherapy. Retrospective reports from large cooperative groups suggest that the addition of whole-lung radiotherapy (WLRT) improves outcome in ES patients presenting with pulmonary metastases. However, there are no randomised study data to support this.
Conclusions: Further randomised studies are necessary to clarify the role of PLI in addition to current standard chemotherapy regimens, or its use after successful metastasectomy in patients with OS. In patients with localised ES adjuvant chemotherapy appears to be superior to PLI alone, while there is little evidence to support treatment with WLRT in patients who present with pulmonary metastases.