Purpose: A phase II study carried out to assess the efficacy of a risk-adapted strategy of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for lung cancer. The primary endpoint was 3-year local recurrence, and the secondary endpoints were overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), rate of start of systemic therapy or best supportive care (SST-BSC), and toxicity.
Materials and methods: Eligible patients fulfilled the following criteria: performance status of 2 or less, forced expiratory volume in 1 s of 700 mL or more, and tumor not located in central or attached to the chest wall. Twenty-eight Gy was prescribed for primary lung cancers with diameters of 3 cm or less and 30 Gy was prescribed for primary lung cancers with diameters of 3.1-5.0 cm or solitary metastatic lung cancer diameters of 5 cm or less.
Results: Twenty-one patients were analyzed. The patients included 7 patients with adenocarcinoma, 2 patients with squamous cell carcinoma, 1 patient with metastasis, and 11 patients with clinical diagnosis. The median tumor diameter was 1.9 cm. SRS was prescribed at 28 Gy for 18 tumors and 30 Gy for 3 tumors. During the median follow-up period of 38.9 months for survivors, 1 patient had local recurrence, 7 patients had regional or distant metastasis, and 5 patients died. The 3-year local recurrence, SST-BSC, DFS, and OS rates were 5.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.3-22.2%), 20.1% (95% CI: 6.0-40.2%), 59.2% (95% CI: 34.4-77.3%), and 78.2% (95% CI: 51.4-91.3%), respectively. The 95% CI upper value of local recurrence was lower than the null local recurrence probability. There was no severe toxicity, and grade 2 radiation pneumonitis occurred in 1 patient.
Conclusions: Patients who received SRS for lung cancer had a low rate of 3-year local recurrence and tolerable toxicity.
Keywords: SRS; lung cancer; stereotactic body radiotherapy; stereotactic radiosurgery; volumetric modulated arc therapy.