Alysa M. Fairchild, MD, of the Cross Cancer Institute and the University of Alberta, discusses her study on the use of dexamethasone to reduce pain flare in patients receiving palliative radiotherapy for bone metastases (Abstract LBA6663).
Joel E. Tepper, MD, of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, discusses the ways in which SBRT has changed radiotherapy, as demonstrated in key studies presented at this year's meeting on stereotactic body radiotherapy for liver metastases and hepatocellular carcinoma, and borderline resectable and unresectable pancreatic tumors (Abstracts 253, 255, 351, 357).
Bruce Minsky, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses two important papers: results from a prospective trial on quality-of-life outcomes for low-risk HPV-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and a prostate cancer radiation therapy study (Abstracts 3, 4).
Howard M. Sandler, MD, of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, discusses how adding 24 months of daily antiandrogen therapy during and after radiotherapy was shown to significantly improve long-term overall survival following prostate cancer recurrence after a radical prostatectomy (Abstract LBA5).
Robert Kuske, MD, of Arizona Breast Cancer Specialists, discusses the evaluation of more than 1,300 patients with accelerated partial-breast irradiation via multicatheter interstitial brachytherapy, focusing on toxicity and cosmetic outcomes (Abstract 133).
Jay Harris, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, discusses the difficulty reconciling recent important trials on radiotherapy for breast cancer: The Z11 trial suggested that breast tangents are sufficient, while MA.20 and EORTC studies suggested that full nodal irradiation is beneficial.
