Background
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a radiosensitive disease, and radiotherapy is the standard therapy for non-disseminated NPC. A growing data showed that improvement in NPC patients treated with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) was demonstrated in achieving excellent local tumor control, especially in the locally early-T stage patients with the least toxicity [
1‐
4]. However, local persistence of disease remains a major hindrance to successful treatment, and the locally persistent NPC patient carries a risk of local recurrence if the salvaging treatment is not given, locally persistent disease was defined as relapsed tumor within 6 months of completion of primary radiotherapy, and local recurrence was failure beyond 6 months [
5,
6]. Kwong
et al. [
7] showed their experience in the patterns of failure in NPC patients after the completion of radiotherapy was associated with an increased risk of local failure. Among 803 NPC patients, fifty-five (6.8%) showed persistent disease and positive biopsies at 12 weeks post-radiotherapy with only 40% of 5-year local control rate. Likewise, Sze
et al. and Yan
et al. also showed that the local persistence of NPC post therapy was associated with an increased risk of local recurrence [
8,
9]. Therefore, aggressive and effective salvage treatment for locally persistent NPC is very important [
10‐
13].
Various salvage treatment techniques have reportedly been effective for locally persistent NPC, including surgical nasopharyngectomy [
14], brachytherapy [
5], stereotactic radiosurgery [
15,
16], and three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) [
17]. In our cancer center, routine 2D brachytherapy was given for salvaging NPC with biopsy-proven persistence before May 2005. Since then, 3D-image-guided high-dose-rate intracavitary brachytherapy (3D-image-guided HDR-BT) was used instead for this group of patients. 3D-image-guided HDR-BT is a new treatment method that uses PLATO BPS workstation (Nucletron B.V., Veenendal, the Netherlands). 3D-brachytherapy treatment planning is based on a set of CT, MR or UltraSound (US) images. Empty catheters are placed within the patient via meatus. Once the catheters are in place, a set of CT images is taken and the catheters are reconstructed on these images. Following the catheter reconstruction, the source positions and dwell times are planned and the plan is optimized [
18‐
22]. This planning strategy enables us to build up the real time isodose distribution in all CT slices to increase accuracy of delivery of the prescribed dose. Previous studies have reported that external beam radiotherapy (ERT) combined with 3D-HDR-ICBT treatment was an effective treatment modality in cervical cancer [
23,
24], breast cancer [
25], and prostate cancer patients [
26], and so on. In 2010, Johanne
et al. [
27] compared the dose conformity of CT-based 3D high-dose-rate brachytherapy (3D-HDR-BT) and IMRT to deliver a boost to the prostate after external beam radiotherapy, they reported that CT-based 3D HDR-BT produced a more conformal plan for the boost to the prostate than IMRT.
Therefore, we conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the therapeutic benefit of 3D-image-guided HDR-BT modality for salvage treatment of locally persistent disease after intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
Discussion
Recently, the use of 3D treatment planning system has increased in most radiotherapy facilities. This method allows for a better assessment of GTV and the definition and delineation of CTV compared with traditional approaches. A 100% isodose line was selected to cover the entire target as optimally as possible, then manual optimization on each CT slice was done interactively by dragging the 100% isodose line to cover the target volume as conformally as possible in this study. Our experience has shown that this CT-based-3D planning approach improved target volume delineation and optimal isodose coverage, and is more accurate and much easier than the conventional orthogonal film dosimetry.
In the current study, we treated 32 consecutive nonmetastatic NPC patients with local persistence disease using 3D-image-guided HDR-BT after IMRT. The whole procedure was well tolerated under local anesthesia. The results showed the 3D-image-guided HDR-BT was an effective treatment technique for local persistence, the actuarial 5-y LFFS rate was 93.8% with minimal toxicity. On subgroup analysis, the corresponding 5-y LFFS rates for T1, T2, T3, T4 at initial diagnosis were 100%, 100%, 91.7%, 50% respectively. The flexible customer designed applicators can be easily placed close to the nasopharyngeal mucosa resulting in a higher dose to the persistent lesion. With higher mucosal dose delivered by this technique, the benefit was gained in improving the local control of patient treated with this technique. This treatment results support our hypothesis that an adequate Salvage treatment to the locally persistence could compensate for primary treatment. In our study, 2 patients (T3 and T4 one each) with an initial complete response developed locoregional failure (one in parapharyngeal space and one in skull base) as assessed by nasopharyngoscopy, biopsy and MRI scans beyond 6 months at the completion of Salvage treatment. For advanced T stage NPC at initial diagnosis, the locally persistence may not be confined to the nasopharynx after IMRT. Due to its dosimetric limitations, 3D-HDR-BT therapy seemed to be not enough for patients with persistent disease beyond the area of nasopharynx.
Five patients developed relapse in other sites, one in the neck; the other 4 distant metastasis including one in the liver; 1 in the lung and 2 in the bone. 3D-image-guided CT-based HDR-BT did not improve the distant control rates as a salvage treatment. These results concurred with a previous study by Leibel SA
et al. [
33], which showed that nasopharynx tumors have a higher probability of micrometastatic dissemination at initial diagnosis, and concluded that the effect of local tumor control on survival cannot be determined without more effective methods to treat disseminated disease. Chang JT
et al. [
34] used
18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and found that 11% of distant metastases in NPC patients were not discovered using the conventional staging workup (CWU). Based on this finding, they suggested that FDG-PET diagnosed stage M for NPC should be more accurate and sensitive than CWU. Due to its cost and availability, FDG-PET was not performed for each single patient in our study. Therefore, it was uncertain whether improved local tumor control by 3D-HDR-ICBT was associated with improved distant tumor control.
Due to its rapid dose fall-off, brachytherapy with Ir-192 to the locally persistent NPC post primary IMRT can deliver a high radiation dose to the target volume while sparing parotid glands and other vital structures, achieving higher local tumor control rate with relatively lower complications compared to external beam boost. The xerostomia syndrome was commonly seen as a long-term side effect in NPC patients when treated with primary radiotherapy. Our data showed patients with locally persistent NPC lesion experienced mild xerostomia when 3D-image-guided CT-based HDR-BT was used as salvage treatment to IMRT. Three patients experienced Grade-II mucositis could be ascribed to the high dose to the nasopharyngeal mucosa. During the long-term follow-up, the only complication related to brachytherapy was synechiae of the nasal mucosal linings in one patients, which can be treated easily by surgery, or adjust the loading pattern during the course of placing applicators to 3D-HDR BT.
At present, the optional gap time for salvage of locally persistent NPC patients after the completion of primary radiotherapy is still an issue. In this respective analysis, the mean gap period was 12 weeks. Zheng
et al. [
17] reported, the median of their gap period is also 12 weeks. Kwong
et al. [
7] recommended a confirmatory biopsy at 10 weeks before first salvage treatment. They analyzed the time course of histologic remission after radiotherapy in 803 NPC patients. Their results showed 6.9% of the total patients had residual disease at week 12, 16.3% had spontaneous remission observed in repeated biopsy after initial positive histologic proven, defined as delayed histologic remission; 76.8% had negative histologic features within 12 weeks after the completion of RT, defined as early histologic remission. They found that the delayed histologic remission is not a poor prognostic factor and the salvage treatment might be unnecessary. According to their study, some patients might have delayed histologic remission and the additional salvage treatment might be unnecessary in our series. In contrast, Withers
et al. [
35] revealed evidence of accelerated tumor regrowth in analysis nearly 500 oropharyngeal cancer patients with extensions of treatment from 5 to 8 weeks, a dose increment of about 0.6 Gy per day was required to compensate for tumor repopulation. Considering tumor repopulation between the completion of the first course radiotherapy and the salvage treatment, a shorter gap period could achieve higher local control. In our current series, the overall 5-y actuarial LFFS rate was 93.8%, and the excellent LFFS rate was also reported by Zheng
et al. [
17] 100%, 94.12%, 84.38%, 83.92% for stage T1,T2,T3,T4 disease using 3D-CRT salvage treatment at the short gap time period. Those results showed that early intervention for persistent NPC patients required a low salvaging radiation dose, obtained an excellent local tumor control with low rate of complications.
In conclusion, 3D-image-guided CT-based HDR-BT achieved excellent local tumor control rate as salvage treatment to primary IMRT for patients with locally persistent NPC disease, especially for those with T1-2 disease at the initial diagnosis. Xerostomia syndrome and other toxicities associated with this approach have decreased. Despite high locoregional control, distant metastasis remains main obstacle to the successful treatment for this group of patients; more effective therapy is warranted to improve the outcome.
Consent (Adult)
Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Competing interests
The authors indicated no actual or potential conflicts of interest exist.
Authors’ contributions
YFR - Primary author of manuscript and revisions. JX - Contributed to writing of manuscript and concept. WJY,YHG - Performed physics plans and assisted with manuscript. XPC - Concept of paper, contributed in writing manuscript and all revisions, BST, BXW- Concept of paper, contributed in writing manuscript and all revisions. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.