Roy Decker, MD, PhD, of Yale University School of Medicine, discusses a National Cancer Database analysis that showed elderly patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer can benefit from adding concurrent radiation to chemotherapy (Abstract 1010).
Catherine C. Park, MD, of the University of California, San Francisco, summarizes results from three clinical trials of radiation therapy for various cancers: metastatic melanoma, oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and breast cancer (Abstracts 215, 3, and LBA7).
Samuel Chao, MD, of Cleveland Clinic, discusses the QMAP program and data-driven management, which offer ways to improve consistency and drive quality in radiation oncology departments (Abstract 39).
Leonard Gunderson, MD, of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, discusses PET/CT imaging in upper and lower gastrointestinal cancers, which can be of value as a baseline study prior to treatment, in determining the degree of response to treatment, and in helping decide whether there is a relapse after a complete response to treatment.
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.
Anita Mahajan, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, summarizes results from three clinical trials on radiation therapy for ependymoma, locally advanced thoracic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, and meningioma (Abstracts 31, 1, 7).
