Hi all --

Doing some research for meeting tomorrow with RO and (hopefully the rad physicist as well as I wanted to ask him some questions for this forum.)

I did come up with three interesting and pertinent papers presented at the last ASTRO meeting (2004) which compare IMRT to conventional RT, and also, IMRT to tomotherapy.

Jabbari, S. et al. Xerostomia and quality of life (QOL) after parotid-sparing IMRT for head and neck (HN) cancer: A matched case-control comparison with standard radiotherapy (RT). Authors concluded that xerostomia and QOL worsened shortly after sompletion of therapy in all patiants. Patients receiving standard RT did not report any improvement during the first year after therapy. In contrast patients matched in clinical factors (prior to treatment) reported significant improvement over time in both XQ and QOL.

Pacholke, H. et al. Xerostomia quality of life in head and neck cancer patients who are beyond the acute recovery phase following radiotherapy: IMRT versus conventional radiotherapy. The authors looked at 5 groups of patients who were more than 1 year out of therapy, grouped by the extent to which the radiotherapy impinged on the parotid glands. They concluded that IMRT improves quality of life compared to conventional RT in all groups.

Harari, P. et al. Refining target coverage and normal tissue avoidance with helical tomotherapy vs. Linac-based IMRT for oropharyngeal cancer. 20 patients had treatment plans drawn up for both IMRT and tomotherapy and the results (dosage to primary and subclinical targets and to normal tissues) compared. All treatment plans met prescribed doses. The helical tomotherapy delivered somewhat more dose to targets (4%) and significantly less to normal tissues of parotid gland, spinal cord and oral cavity (up to 50% less). Tomotherapy offered a significantly larger number of projections (up to 1000) over the 7 beams from conventional IMRT. The authors have another study underway evaluating functional outcome and QOL in patients receiving tomo vs. conventional IMRT.

Anyway, will try to get to our RP and ask him what he thinks about these issue...

Gail