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Background: To retrospectively investigate the influence of pretreatment anemia and hemoglobin levels on the survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (C-CRT).Methods: A total of 149 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who received C-CRT were included. All patients had received 70 Gy to the primary tumor plus the involved lymph nodes, and 59.4 Gy and 54 Gy to the intermediate- and low-risk neck regions concurrent with 1–3 cycles of cisplatin. Patients were dichotomized into non-anemic and anemic (hemoglobin <12 g/dL (women) or <13 g/dL (men)) groups according to their pre-treatment hemoglobin measures. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized for accessibility of a pre-treatment hemoglobin cut-off that impacts outcomes. Potential interactions between baseline anemia status and hemoglobin measures and overall survival, locoregional progression-free survival (LRPFS), and progression-free survival were assessed.Results: Anemia was evident in 36 patients (24.1%), which was related to significantly shorter overall survival (P=0.007), LRPFS (P<0.021), and progression-free survival (P=0.003) times; all three endpoints retained significance in multivariate analyses (P<0.05, for each). A baseline hemoglobin value of 11.0 g/dL exhibited significant association with outcomes in ROC curve analysis: hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL (N=26) was linked with shorter median overall survival (P<0.001), LRPFS (P=0.004), and progression-free survival (P<0.001) times, which also retained significance for all three endpoints in multivariate analyses and suggested a stronger prognostic worth for the hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL cut-off value than the anemia status.Conclusion: Pre-C-CRT hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL has a stronger prognostic worth than the anemia status with regard to LRPFS, progression-free survival, and overall survival for nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy for reirradiation of recurrent pediatric tumors.Methods and Materials: The study included 23 pediatric patients who were reirradiated using hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy in the radiation oncology department between January 2008 and November 2013. In total, 33 tumors were treated—27 (82%) cranial and 6 (18%) extracranial. Hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy was administered due to recurrent disease in 31 (94%) tumors and residual disease in 2 (6%) tumors. The median total dose was 25 Gy (range: 15-40 Gy), and the median follow-up was 20 months (range: 2-68 months).Results: The 1-year and 2-year local control rates in the entire study population were 42% and 31%, respectively. The median local control time was 11 months (range: 0-54 months) following hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy. The patients with tumor response after hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy had significantly longer local control than the patients with post-hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy tumor progression (21 vs 3 months, P< .001). Tumor volume <1.58 cm3was correlated (not significantly) with better local control (23 vs 7 months, P= .064).Conclusion: Reirradiation of pediatric tumors using hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy is a safe and effective therapeutic approach. This treatment modality should be considered as a treatment option in selected pediatric patients.

•High-dose RT upregulated pDCs within the tumor microenvironment.•The administration of intratumoral TLR9 agonist (CMP-001) after stereotactic RT significantly enhanced the anti-tumor immune response both locally and at secondary tumor site.•CMP-001 Post-RT delayed the abscopal tumor growth and extended the survival rate via increasing the percentages of activated CD4+and CD8+T-cells within the tumor microenvironment.•The treatment proved efficacious in both lung adenocarcinoma and colon carcinoma syngeneic models used.