Oesophagus side effects related to the treatment of oesophageal cancer or radiotherapy of other thoracic malignancies

Surgical treatment of esophageal perforation after stereotactic body radiotherapy: A report of two cases

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE

Esophageal perforation due to stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is rare, and there is no consensus on the treatment strategy. Here, we report two cases of esophageal perforation caused by CyberKnife irradiation managed with distinct surgical approaches.

CASE PRESENTATION

Case 1 was a 54-year-old woman who was administered chemotherapy including bevacizumab and underwent CyberKnife SBRT for postoperative ovarian cancer (pStage IIIc) with metastasis in the eighth thoracic vertebra. Thirteen months after irradiation, she suddenly developed right back and anterior thoracic pain and was diagnosed with esophageal perforation. Despite open chest drainage and intercostal muscle (ICM) flap coverage, the fistula could not be closed, leading to pyogenic spondylitis and epidural abscess. Case 2 was of a 58-year-old woman with mediastinal lymph node metastasis 5 years after uterine cancer surgery (pStage Ia) who underwent CyberKnife SBRT. Six months after irradiation, she experienced back pain and was diagnosed with esophageal perforation. After curative esophagectomy, the patient was discharged on postoperative day 22 without any adverse effects.

CLINICAL DISCUSSION

Esophageal perforation by SBRT with vascular endothelial growth factor inhibitors (VEGFI) such as bevacizumab has rarely been reported. Considering the impaired wound healing system and blood perfusion caused by radiation therapy and VEGFI, difficulty closing the perforation covered with an ICM flap was hypothesized.

CONCLUSION

Late esophageal toxicity from irradiation may cause impaired blood flow and wound healing; therefore, curative esophagectomy, including at the perforation site, is effective.

Radiation-Induced Esophageal Cancer: Investigating the Pathogenesis, Management, and Prognosis

One of the most serious late side effects of irradiation is the promotion of tumorigenesis. Radiation-induced esophageal cancer (RIEC) can arise in a previously irradiated field, mostly in patients previously irradiated for thoracic malignancies such as breast cancer, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphomas, head and neck cancers, lung cancer, or previous esophageal cancer. RIEC is rare and accounts for less than 1% of all carcinomas of the esophagus. There are little data available in the current literature regarding pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of esophageal cancer developed in a previously irradiated field. RIEC seems to represent a biologically aggressive disease with a poor prognosis. Although it is difficult to perform radical surgery on a previously irradiated field, R0 resection remains the mainstay of treatment. The use of neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemoradiotherapy remains very helpful in RIEC, similarly to conventional esophageal cancer protocols. The aim of this article is to elucidate this rare but challenging entity.

Response Evaluation Following Radiation Therapy With 18F-FDG PET/CT: Common Variants of Radiation-Induced Changes and Potential Pitfalls

Radiation therapy (RT) is one of the cornerstones in cancer treatment and approximately half of all patients will receive some form of RT during the course of their cancer management. Response evaluation after RT and follow-up imaging with ¹⁸F-Fluorodeoxyglucose (¹⁸F-FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) can be complicated by RT-induced acute, chronic or consequential effects. There is a general consensus that ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT for response evaluation should be delayed for 12 weeks after completing RT to minimize the risk of false-positive findings. Radiation-induced late side effects in normal tissue can take years to develop and eventually cause symptoms that on imaging can potentially mimic recurrent disease. Imaging findings in radiation induced injuries depend on the normal tissue included in the irradiated volume and the radiation therapy regime including the total dose delivered, dose per fraction and treatment schedule. The intent for radiation therapy should be taken in consideration when evaluating the response on imaging, that is palliative vs curative or neoadjuvant vs adjuvant RT. Imaging findings can further be distorted by altered anatomy and sequelae following surgery within the radiation field. An awareness of common PET/CT-induced changes/injuries is essential when interpreting ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT as well as obtaining a complete medical history, as patients are occasionally scanned for an unrelated cause to previously RT treated malignancy. In addition, secondary malignancies due to carcinogenic effects of radiation exposure in long-term cancer survivors should not be overlooked. ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT can be very useful in response evaluation and follow-up in patients treated with RT, however, variants and pitfalls are common and it is important to remember that radiation-induced injury is often a diagnosis of exclusion.

Gut Microbiota Characteristics Are Associated With Severity of Acute Radiation-Induced Esophagitis

BACKGROUND

Acute radiation-induced esophagitis (ARIE) is one of the most debilitating complications in patients who receive thoracic radiotherapy, especially those with esophageal cancer (EC). There is little known about the impact of the characteristics of gut microbiota on the initiation and severity of ARIE.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Gut microbiota samples of EC patients undergoing radiotherapy (n = 7) or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (n = 42) were collected at the start, middle, and end of the radiotherapy regimen. Assessment of patient-reported ARIE was also performed. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing, changes of the gut microbial community during the treatment regimen and correlations of the gut microbiota characteristics with the severity of ARIE were investigated.

RESULTS

There were significant associations of several properties of the gut microbiota with the severity of ARIE. The relative abundance of several genera in the phylum Proteobacteria increased significantly as mucositis severity increased. The predominant genera had characteristic changes during the treatment regimen, such as an increase of opportunistic pathogenic bacteria including Streptococcus. Patients with severe ARIE had significantly lower alpha diversity and a higher abundance of Fusobacterium before radiotherapy, but patients with mild ARIE were enriched in Klebsiella, Roseburia, Veillonella, Prevotella_9, Megasphaera, and Ruminococcus_2. A model combining these genera had the best performance in prediction of severe ARIE (area under the curve: 0.907).

CONCLUSION

The characteristics of gut microbiota before radiotherapy were associated with subsequent ARIE severity. Microbiota-based strategies have potential use for the early prediction of subsequent ARIE and for the selection of interventions that may prevent severe ARIE.

Radiation-induced damage in the upper gastrointestinal tract: clinical presentation, diagnostic tests and treatment options

Radiation-induced damage of the upper gastrointestinal (GI) tract results from radiation of GI tumors or structures adjacent to the GI tract. Radiation-induced damages of the upper GI tract may be acute or delayed, and ranges from lack of appetite, mucosal inflammation (i.e. esophagitis, gastritis, duodenitis) to ulcers, which may be complicated by perforation, penetration, bleeding and stenosis. Radiation-related factors as well as individual patient predisposing factors may increase susceptibility to post-radiation damage. High quality evidence for the treatment of radiation-induced GI damage is scarce and the management is often extrapolated from studies on GI lesions of different etiology. Treatment depends on severity and localization of the radiation-induced damage, and ranges from supportive and dietary measures to endoscopic interventions or surgery. Modern radiation techniques may decrease the incidence and severity of the radiation-induced upper gastrointestinal disease.

Definitive radiochemotherapy in esophageal cancer - a single institution experience

Background

Definitive radiochemotherapy is the preferred treatment option in patients with the cancer of the cervical esophagus and a viable treatment option in patients with the cancer of lower two thirds of the esophagus, who decline proposed surgical treatment. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the treatment results with definitive radiochemotherapy of patients with esophageal cancer, treated in a single institution in the period from 2010 to 2017.

Patients and methods

All available medical data for 55 patients with esophageal cancer, who were treated with definitive radiochemotherapy with curative intent, were analyzed retrospectively. Patients were irradiated to a total dose to the tumor of 70 Gy (2 Gy per fraction) in upper third (cervical) tumors or to the mean total dose of 57.6 Gy (1.8 Gy per fraction) in middle third (intrathoracic) tumors. All but one patient received concomitant chemotherapy, with the majority of them (41 patients; 74.5%) receiving concomitant chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil in continuous 96 hours infusion and cisplatin. The main endpoints of the study were overall survival (OS; death of any cause), locoregional control (LRC; local and/or regional disease recurrence) and disease-free survival (DFS; recurrence of any kind and/or new primary malignoma). Univariate analysis testing the impact of different parameters on survivals and analysis of treatment related side effects were performed as well.

Results

The mean age of patients was 62 years (SD 9 years; range: 29–80 years). Majority of them had squamous cell cancer (53 patients; 96.4%) in the stage T3 or T4 (47 patients; 85.5%) and/or N+ disease (35 patients; 63.6%). Median follow-up time for the whole group of patients was 16.8 months (range: 0.3–81.8 months). At the time of analysis 14 (25.5%) patients were still alive. Rates for OS, LRC and DFS at two and five years were as follows: 47% and 19.4%; 43.7% and 41%; 32.1% and 11.5%, respectively.

Conclusions

The study results of treatment with definitive radiochemotherapy in patients with esophageal cancer are similar to the results of other studies. Majority of patients ended the treatment according to the protocol, which at least in part can be attributed to the adequate and well organized supportive treatment in our institution.

Optical coherence tomography to detect acute esophageal radiation-induced damage in mice: A validation study

Radiation therapy for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer is hampered by acute radiation-induced toxicity in the esophagus. This study aims to validate that optical coherence tomography (OCT), a minimally invasive imaging technique with high resolution (~10 μm), is able to visualize and monitor acute radiation-induced esophageal damage (ARIED) in mice. We compare our findings with histopathology as the gold standard. Irradiated mice receive a single dose of 40 Gy at proximal and distal spots of the esophagus of 10.0 mm in diameter. We scan mice using OCT at two, three, and seven days post-irradiation. In OCT analysis, we define ARIED as a presence of distorted esophageal layering, change in backscattering signal properties, or change in the esophageal wall thickness. The average esophageal wall thickness is 0.53 mm larger on OCT when ARIED is present based on histopathology. The overall sensitivity and specificity of OCT to detect ARIED compared to histopathology are 94% and 47%, respectively. However, the overall sensitivity of OCT to assess ARIED is 100% seven days post-irradiation. We validate the capability of OCT to detect ARIED induced by high doses in mice. Nevertheless, clinical studies are required to assess the potential role of OCT to visualize ARIED in humans.

Spinal cord detection in planning CT for radiotherapy through adaptive template matching, IMSLIC and convolutional neural networks

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The spinal cord is a very important organ that must be protected in treatments of radiotherapy (RT), considered an organ at risk (OAR). Excess rays associated with the spinal cord can cause irreversible diseases in patients who are undergoing radiotherapy. For the planning of treatments with RT, computed tomography (CT) scans are commonly used to delimit the OARs and to analyze the impact of rays in these organs. Delimiting these OARs take a lot of time from medical specialists, plus the fact that involves a large team of professionals. Moreover, this task made slice-by-slice becomes an exhaustive and consequently subject to errors, especially in organs such as the spinal cord, which extend through several slices of the CT and requires precise segmentation. Thus, we propose, in this work, a computational methodology capable of detecting spinal cord in planning CT images.

METHODS

The techniques highlighted in this methodology are adaptive template matching for initial segmentation, intrinsic manifold simple linear iterative clustering (IMSLIC) for candidate segmentation and convolutional neural networks (CNN) for candidate classification, that consists of four steps: (1) images acquisition, (2) initial segmentation, (3) candidates segmentation and (4) candidates classification.

RESULTS

The methodology was applied on 36 planning CT images provided by The Cancer Imaging Archive, and achieved an accuracy of 92.55%, specificity of 92.87% and sensitivity of 89.23% with 0.065 of false positives per images, without any false positives reduction technique, in detection of spinal cord.

CONCLUSIONS

It is demonstrated the feasibility of the analysis of planning CT images using IMSLIC and convolutional neural network techniques to achieve success in detection of spinal cord regions.

Effects of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy vs chemotherapy alone on the relief of dysphagia in esophageal cancer patients: secondary endpoint analysis in a randomized trial

Dysphagia is the most significant symptom in patients with esophageal cancer. There are different therapeutic interventions designed to relieve dysphagia, but few studies have addressed the effects of neoadjuvant therapy. The aim of this study is to compare the effects on dysphagia of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (nCT) versus neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy (nCRT) and further to study the association between dysphagia response and histological response. Patient reported swallowing function was a secondary endpoint in the NeoRes trial, in which patients were randomized between neoadjuvant chemotherapy or neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Patients completed dysphagia questionnaires before the start and after neoadjuvant therapy, using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) esophageal cancer modules QLQ-OES24/OG25. Chirieac tumor regression grade (TRG) was used to assess the histological response. Out of 181 patients were randomized, of whom 87% completed the dysphagia questionnaires before and 73% after neoadjuvant treatment. Patient characteristics were similar between the treatment arms. Among patients reporting dysphagia at baseline, neoadjuvant therapy improved dysphagia in both arms. The mean dysphagia score after neoadjuvant treatment was significantly lower after nCT compared to after nCRT (P = 0.022). The reported dysphagia did not differ between those with a complete histological response (TRG 1) and those without any response at all (TRG 4) (P = 0. 583).

Two rare complications in a single patient of lung cancer: Radiation-induced spontaneous esophageal perforation and aortic rupture and their successful management

Adjuvant radiotherapy is indicated in few operated cases of lung cancer for effective local control. Oesophageal perforation and aortic rupture are rare and lethal complications of postoperative adjuvant radiotherapy. Both of these complications happened in a 64 year male patient with squamous cell carcinoma of lung. Radiation induced oesophageal perforation occurred immediately after completion of radiotherapy. Endoscopic Self Expanding Radio Therapy (SEMS) was placed, thoracic cavity was debrided and window thoracostomy was performed. After few months of this episode, he had torrential bleeding from descending thoracic aorta. Thoracic Endo Vascular Aortic Repair (TEVAR) was done and bleeding was controlled. This case is unique because both these fatal events happened in a single patient. This report also highlights the use of above mentioned novel therapeutic methods for successful management of these complications in these frail patients.

Feasibility of using optical coherence tomography to detect acute radiation-induced esophageal damage in small animal models

Lung cancer survival is poor, and radiation therapy patients often suffer serious treatment side effects. The esophagus is particularly sensitive leading to acute radiation-induced esophageal damage (ARIED). We investigated the feasibility of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for minimally invasive imaging of the esophagus with high resolution (10  μm) to detect ARIED in mice. Thirty mice underwent cone-beam computed tomography imaging for initial setup assessment and dose planning followed by a single-dose delivery of 4.0, 10.0, 16.0, and 20.0 Gy on 5.0-mm spots, spaced 10.0 mm apart in the esophagus. They were repeatedly imaged using OCT up to three months postirradiation. We compared OCT findings with histopathology obtained three months postirradiation qualitatively and quantitatively using the contrast-to-background-noise ratio (CNR). Histopathology mostly showed inflammatory infiltration and edema at higher doses; OCT findings were in agreement with most of the histopathological reports. We were able to identify the ARIED on OCT as a change in tissue scattering and layer thickness. Our statistical analysis showed significant difference between the CNR values of healthy tissue, edema, and inflammatory infiltration. Overall, the average CNR for inflammatory infiltration and edema damages was 1.6-fold higher and 1.6-fold lower than for the healthy esophageal wall, respectively. Our results showed the potential role of OCT to detect and monitor the ARIED in mice, which may translate to humans.

A surgical case of radiotherapy induced esophageal perforation accompanying pyogenic spondylodiscitis: a case report

Background

Stereotactic body radiotherapy has been a treatment choice for lung cancer, especially in medically inoperable patients. However, the acute and late toxicity to adjacent organs have been reported as an uncommon but severe adverse effect.

Case presentation

A 65-year-old male was presented with his back pain and pyrexia. He had been followed up for non-small-cell lung cancer, which was treated by the stereotactic body radiotherapy 4 years prior to the current visit. The endoscopy revealed an esophageal perforation on its left side in the upper thoracic locus. Because of his poor lung function, he was managed by the conservative treatment. After 3 months, his back pain recurred with developing paraplegia in the lower extremities. The MRI revealed an abscess formation at the posterior side of the upper thoracic esophagus which destroyed the vertebral body and compressed the spinal cord. Laminectomy and two-stage operation—the first stage, nontransthoracic esophagectomy, cervical and transhiatal approach using mediastinoscope and laparoscope, and the second stage, esophageal reconstruction—were performed.

Conclusion

This complex disease status was successfully managed by the orthopedic surgery followed by a two-stage esophagectomy without transthoracic approach.

New Frontiers in the Pathobiology and Treatment of Cancer Regimen-Related Mucosal Injury

Mucositis is a common complication of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted agents. It often affects compliance to anticancer therapies as it frequently causes schedule delays, interruptions or discontinuations of treatment. Moreover, the economic impact related to the management of mucositis is topical and several estimations of additional hospital costs due to this clinical condition have been recently reported. The ability to determine risk factors for mucositis, to early detect its onset, to assess correctly the degree of this toxicity and to plan its multidisciplinary management are all key elements to guarantee the quality of life of patients and to avoid useless dose reduction or interruption of treatment. The pathogenesis of mucositis is multifactorial and it is classily subdivided into oral and gastrointestinal mucositis according to its anatomic presentation. Treatment and patients’ related factors might help in predicting the frequency and the potential degree of symptoms onset. Here we discuss about clinical presentation and pathogenesis of mucositis in relation to different kinds of treatments. Moreover, we focus on therapeutic and prevention strategies, describing past and present management according to international guidelines and the most promising new data about agents potentially able to further improve the treatment of mucositis in the next future.