Aim: To define safety and efficacy of a palliative, short-course accelerated radiation therapy for symptomatic locally advanced primary pelvic cancer.
Materials and methods: A phase II trial was planned based on the minimax Simon's two-stage design. A total of 18 Gy in 4.5 Gy/fraction administered twice a day was delivered (SHARON). Pain and quality of life were recorded according to the Visual Analogue self-assessment and the cancer linear analog scales (CLAS), respectively.
Results: Twenty-five patients were enrolled in the study. The most frequent baseline symptoms were pain (48%), bleeding (40%), bleeding/pain (8%), and intestinal sub-occlusion (4%). The overall palliative response rate was 96.0%, with a median palliative duration of 6 months. An improvement of quality-of-life indices (well-being, fatigue, and ability to perform daily activities) was noted in 64.0%, 36.0%, and 48.0% of patients, respectively.
Conclusion: The SHARON regimen was well tolerated and effective in the palliative treatment of patients with locally advanced pelvic cancer. Based on these results, a multicentric prospective phase III trial is ongoing to compare this regimen with traditional 2-week radiotherapy treatment.
Keywords: Pelvic cancer; pain; palliative care; phase II; quality of life; radiotherapy.
Copyright© 2019, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.