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Introduction: The standard treatment for patients with focal drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) who are not eligible for open brain surgery is the continuation of anti-seizure medication (ASM) and neuromodulation. This treatment does not cure epilepsy but only decreases severity. The PRECISION trial offers a non-invasive, possibly curative intervention for these patients, which consist of a single stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) treatment. Previous studies have shown promising results of SRT in this patient population. Nevertheless, this intervention is not yet available and reimbursed in the Netherlands. We hypothesize that: SRT is a superior treatment option compared to palliative standard of care, for patients with focal DRE, not eligible for open surgery, resulting in a higher reduction of seizure frequency (with 50% of the patients reaching a 75% seizure frequency reduction at 2 years follow-up). Methods: In this waitlist-controlled phase 3 clinical trial, participants are randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to either receive SRT as the intervention, while the standard treatments consist of ASM continuation and neuromodulation. After 2-year follow-up, patients randomized for the standard treatment (waitlist-control group) are offered SRT. Patients aged ≥ 18 years with focal DRE and a pretreatment defined epileptogenic zone (EZ) not eligible for open surgery will be included. The intervention is a LINAC-based single fraction (24 Gy) SRT treatment. The target volume is defined as the epileptogenic zone (EZ) on all (non) invasive examinations. The seizure frequency will be monitored on a daily basis using an electronic diary and an automatic seizure detection system during the night. Potential side effects are evaluated using advanced MRI, cognitive evaluation, Common Toxicity Criteria, and patient-reported outcome questionnaires. In addition, the cost-effectiveness of the SRT treatment will be evaluated. Discussion: This is the first randomized trial comparing SRT with standard of care in patients with DRE, non-eligible for open surgery. The primary objective is to determine whether SRT significantly reduces the seizure frequency 2 years after treatment. The results of this trial can influence the current clinical practice and medical cost reimbursement in the Netherlands for patients with focal DRE who are not eligible for open surgery, providing a non-invasive curative treatment option. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT05182437. Registered on September 27, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) is a novel non-invasive alternative for patients with primary renal cell cancer who do not undergo surgical resection. The FASTRACK II clinical trial investigated the efficacy of SABR for primary renal cell cancer in a phase 2 trial. This international, non-randomised, phase 2 study was conducted in seven centres in Australia and one centre in the Netherlands. Eligible patients aged 18 years or older had biopsy-confirmed diagnosis of primary renal cell cancer, with only a single lesion; were medically inoperable, were at high risk of complications from surgery, or declined surgery; and had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0–2. A multidisciplinary decision that active treatment was warranted was required. Key exclusion criteria were a pre-treatment estimated glomerular filtration rate of less than 30 mL/min per 1·73 m2, previous systemic therapies for renal cell cancer, previous high-dose radiotherapy to an overlapping region, tumours larger than 10 cm, and direct contact of the renal cell cancer with the bowel. Patients received either a single fraction SABR of 26 Gy for tumours 4 cm or less in maximum diameter, or 42 Gy in three fractions for tumours more than 4 cm to 10 cm in maximum diameter. The primary endpoint was local control, defined as no progression of the primary renal cell cancer, as evaluated by the investigator per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours (version 1.1). Assuming a 1-year local control of 90%, the null hypothesis of 80% or less was considered not to be worthy of proceeding to a future randomised controlled trial. All patients who commenced trial treatment were included in the primary outcome analysis. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT02613819 , and has completed accrual. Between July 28, 2016, and Feb 27, 2020, 70 patients were enrolled and initiated treatment. Median age was 77 years (IQR 70–82). Before enrolment, 49 (70%) of 70 patients had documented serial growth on initial surveillance imaging. 49 (70%) of 70 patients were male and 21 (30%) were female. Median tumour size was 4·6 cm (IQR 3·7–5·5). All patients enrolled had T1–T2a and N0–N1 disease. 23 patients received single-fraction SABR of 26 Gy and 47 received 42 Gy in three fractions. Median follow-up was 43 months (IQR 38–60). Local control at 12 months from treatment commencement was 100% (p<0·0001). Seven (10%) patients had grade 3 treatment-related adverse events, with no grade 4 adverse events observed. Grade 3 treatment-related adverse events were nausea and vomiting (three [4%] patients), abdominal, flank, or tumour pain (four [6%]), colonic obstruction (two [3%]), and diarrhoea (one [1%]). No treatment-related or cancer-related deaths occurred. To our knowledge, this is the first multicentre prospective clinical trial of non-surgical definitive therapy in patients with primary renal cell cancer. In a cohort with predominantly T1b or larger disease, SABR was an effective treatment strategy with no observed local failures or cancer-related deaths. We observed an acceptable side-effect profile and renal function after SABR. These outcomes support the design of a future randomised trial of SABR versus surgery for primary renal cell cancer. Cancer Australia Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: radiotherapy is one of the major treatments for lung cancer and has been a hot research area for years. This bibliometric analysis aims to present the research trends on lung cancer radiotherapy. Method: On August 31, 2022, the authors identified 9868 articles on lung cancer radiotherapy by the Web of Science (Science Citation Indexing Expanded database) and extracted their general information and the total number of citations. A bibliometric analysis was carried out to present the research landscape, demonstrate the research trends, and determine the most cited papers (top-papers) as well as top-journals on lung cancer radiotherapy. After that, the authors analyzed the recent research hotspots based on the latest publications in top-journals. Results: These 9868 papers were cited a total of 268,068 times. "Durvalumab after chemoradiotherapy in stage III non-small-cell lung cancer" published in 2017 by Antonia et al. was the most cited article (2110 citations). Among the journals, New England Journal of Medicine was most influential. Moreover, J. Clin. Oncol. and Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. was both influential and productive. Corresponding authors represented the USA (2610 articles) and China mainland (2060 articles) took part in most publications and articles with corresponding authors from Netherlands were most cited (46.12 citations per paper). Chemoradiotherapy was the hottest research area, and stereotactic body radiotherapy has become a research hotspot since 2006. Radiotherapy plus immunotherapy has been highly focused since 2019. Conclusions: This bibliometric analysis comprehensively and quantitatively presents the research trends and hotspots based on 9868 relevant articles, and further suggests future research directions. The researchers can benefit in selecting journals and in finding potential collaborators. This study can help researchers gain a comprehensive picture of the research landscape, historical development, and recent hotspots in lung cancer radiotherapy and can provide inspiration for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patients with metastatic esophagogastric cancer present in 25% with oligometastatic disease. Local treatment of OMD plus systemic therapy was associated with long-term overall survival. [Display omitted] • Patients with metastatic esophagogastric cancer present in 25% with oligometastatic disease (OMD). • Local treatment or systemic therapy for OMD improved overall survival (OS). • OS after local plus systemic therapy was better compared with local or systemic therapy. • Randomized controlled trials are warranted to confirm these results. This multicenter study assessed the incidence and survival of patients with esophagogastric cancer and oligometastatic disease (OMD) in two tertiary referral cancer centers in The Netherlands and Switzerland. Between 2010 and 2021, patients with metastatic esophagogastric cancer were identified. Patients with de-novo OMD were included (first-time diagnosis of ≤5 distant metastases on 18F-FDG-PET/CT). Control of the primary tumor was considered in patients who underwent primary tumor resection or definitive chemoradiotherapy without locoregional recurrence. Treatment of OMD was categorized into (1) systemic therapy, (2) local treatment (stereotactic body radiotherapy or metastasectomy), (3) local plus systemic therapy, or (4) best supportive care. The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and independent prognostic factors for OS. Independent prognostic factors for OS were analyzed using multivariable Cox proportional hazard models. In total, 830 patients with metastatic esophagogastric cancer were identified of whom 200 patients with de-novo OMD were included (24%). The majority of included patients had esophageal cancer (73%) with adenocarcinoma histology (79%) and metachronous OMD (52%). The primary tumor was controlled in 68%. Treatment of OMD was systemic therapy (25%), local treatment (43%), local plus systemic therapy (13%), or best supportive care (18%). Median follow-up was 14 months (interquartile range: 7–27). Median OS was 16 months (95% CI: 13–21). Improved OS was independently associated with local plus systemic therapy compared with systemic therapy alone (hazard ratio [HR] 0.47, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.25–0.87). Worse OS was independently associated with squamous cell carcinoma (HR 1.70, 95% CI: 1.07–2.74), bone oligometastases (HR 2.44, 95% CI: 1.28–4.68), brain oligometastases (HR 1.98, 95% CI: 1.05–4.69), and two metastatic locations (HR 2.07, 95% CI: 1.04–4.12). Median OS after local plus systemic therapy was 35 months (95% CI: 22-NA) as compared with 13 months (95% CI: 9–21, p < 0.001) after systemic therapy alone for OMD. Patients with metastatic esophagogastric cancer present in 25% with de-novo OMD. Local treatment of OMD plus systemic therapy was independently associated with long-term OS and independently improved OS when compared with systemic therapy alone. Randomized controlled trials are warranted to confirm these results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of our study is to evaluate local tumour control rates, radiation side‐effects, visual preservation and disease‐free survival (DFS) of uveal melanoma (UM) patients treated with fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy (fSRT). Methods: A retrospective study of UM patients, who were treated with fSRT (N = 189), was performed by the Rotterdam Ocular Melanoma Study group (ROMS), the Netherlands, between 1999 and 2014 with a follow‐up of at least 5 years. Results: The 1‐, 3‐, 5‐, 10‐ and 15‐year local tumour control rates were as follows: 99.4%, 92.8%, 92.2%, 89.3% and 89.3%, respectively. Cataract (67.8%) was the most common side‐effect of fSRT followed by retinopathy (35.1%), maculopathy (23.8%), vitreous haemorrhage (20.1%), neovascular glaucoma (NVG) (20.0%) and optic neuropathy (12.4%). Patients with anterior located UMs developed cataract more frequently (p = 0.047, multivariable analysis). By multivariable analysis, significant factors for secondary enucleation were tumour recurrence (p < 0.001) and NVG (p < 0.001). In multivariable analysis, risk factors for a worse DFS were larger UM (p = 0.024) and tumours with subretinal fluid (SRF) at baseline (p = 0.038). The 5‐year DFS was 77.0% and the best corrected visual acuity decreased significantly after treatment. After 5 years, 22.0% of patients and after 10 years 17.6% of patients had a visual acuity of ≤0.3 logMAR. Conclusion: Fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy is a good treatment option for small‐, medium‐ and large‐sized tumours with 5‐year local tumour control of 92.2%. After 5 years, 22.0% of the patients had a good vision. Independently of tumour location, the visual acuity decreased significantly after treatment. Overall, the 5‐year DFS was 77.0%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Uveal melanoma treated with stereotactic radiotherapy: 5-year tumour control 96.1%. • Uveal melanoma treated with proton beam radiotherapy: 5-year tumour control 96.1%. • Vitreous haemorrhages occur more after stereotactic radiotherapy than proton beam. • Larger tumours are a risk for maculopathy and enucleation. To compare the adverse side effects of fractionated stereotactic photon beam radiotherapy (fSRT) with proton beam radiotherapy (PBR) in patients with uveal melanoma (UM). A retrospective study investigating 306 UM patients treated with fSRT (N=153) by the Rotterdam Ocular Melanoma Study group (ROMS), The Netherlands, between 1999–2014 or with PBR (N=153) at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Bebington, United Kingdom, between 1993–2014. The tumours treated with fSRT were matched with tumours treated with PBR based on sex, left or right eye, TNM classification, posterior margin ≤ or > 3mm of the fovea and of the optic disc. The five-year actuarial rates of tumour recurrence were 4.5% for fSRT and 6.1% for PBR. For fSRT and PBR, the five-year actuarial rates of maculopathy were 14.9% and 12.4%, and for vitreous haemorrhage were 29.4% and 4.7%, respectively. Only vitreous haemorrhage (HR: 0.19, 95% CI: 0.07–0.56) was more common after fSRT compared to PBR. Overall, larger tumours were risk factors for maculopathy and secondary enucleation. Both treatments have excellent local tumour control. In matched groups, vitreous haemorrhage was the only adverse side effect showing a significant difference between groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• From 2012 to 2016, the use of SBRT increased from 36.1 to 48.5% in the Netherlands. • SBRT is the prevailing treatment in octogenarians with stage I NSCLC. • Unadjusted 5-year OS was higher after surgery in all age groups. • OS was worse for SBRT patients with versus without pathologically confirmed NSCLC. • Determinants of frailty must be identified to improve selection for surgery or SBRT. Resection is the standard treatment for stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in operable patients. Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is recommended for inoperable patients. A shift from surgery to SBRT is expected in elderly patients due to increased frailty and competing risks. We assessed the current influence of age on treatment decision-making and overall survival (OS). We performed a retrospective cohort study using data from patients with clinical stage I NSCLC diagnosed in 2012–2016 and treated with lobectomy, segmentectomy, wedge resection, or SBRT, retrieved from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Patient characteristics and OS were compared between SBRT and (sub)lobar resection for patients aged 18−79 and ≥80 years. 8764 patients treated with lobectomy (n = 4648), segmentectomy (n = 122), wedge resection (n = 272), or SBRT (n = 3722) were included. In 2012–2016, SBRT was increasingly used for octogenarians and younger patients from 75.3% to 83.7% and from 30.8% to 43.2%, respectively. Five-year OS in the whole population was 70% after surgery versus 39% after SBRT and 50% versus 27% in octogenarians. After correction for age, gender, year of diagnosis, and clinical T-stage, OS was equal after lobectomy and SBRT in the first 2 years after diagnosis. However, after >2 years, OS was better after lobectomy than after SBRT. SBRT is the prevailing treatment in octogenarians with stage I NSCLC. While surgery is associated with better OS than SBRT, factors other than treatment modality (e.g. comorbidity) may have had a significant impact on survival. The wider application of SBRT in octogenarians likely reflects the frailty of this group. Registries and trials are required to identify key determinants of frailty in this specific population to improve patient selection for surgery or SBRT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aim This nationwide population-based study analyzed the outcome of local treatment for oligometastatic esophagogastric cancer in The Netherlands. Methods Patients with synchronous or metachronous oligometastasis (i.e. distant metastasis in 1 organ/extra-regional lymph node station) from esophagogastric cancer were eligible for inclusion from Netherlands Cancer Registry. Patients who underwent local treatment (i.e. metastasectomy or stereotactic body radiation therapy [SBRT]) for oligometastasis were included. The overall survival (OS) after diagnosing oligometastasis was determined. Independent prognostic factors for OS were analyzed using a multivariable Cox proportional hazard model. Results Between 2015–2016, some 2,336 eligible patients with oligometastasis were identified of whom 103 (4%) underwent local treatment for oligometastasis. This portion was higher in academic hospitals (10%) compared to non-academic hospitals with esophagogastric resections (5%) or without esophagogastric resections (3%, P  < 0.001). The 103 included patients were predominantly diagnosed with esophageal cancer (85%) with adenocarcinoma histology (80%) and with metachronous oligometastasis (59%). The oligometastasis were located in a distant organ (79%), an extra-regional lymph node station (12%), or the peritoneum (9%). Treatment for oligometastasis included metastasectomy (45%), SBRT (40%), or both (15%), and 21% of patients received additional systemic therapy. Median OS was 18.1 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 13.9–22.7). The OS rate at 2-year was 36% and at 3-year 23%. Improved OS was independently associated with additional systemic therapy (hazard ratio [HR] 0.47, 95% CI: 0.23–0.96) and better performance scores (HR 0.55, 95% CI: 0.29–0.92). Conclusion A minority of patients underwent local treatment for oligometastatic esophagogastric cancer, which was dependent on the type of hospital of diagnosis. Local treatment for oligometastasis resulted in a median OS of 1.5 years. Systemic therapy combined with local treatment for oligometastasis improved OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Elderly patients with stage I non-small-cell lung cancer are less likely to undergo curative treatment. However, the introduction of new treatment options such as stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) may improve treatment rates. We evaluated time trends in treatment patterns and survival in the entire Netherlands population for patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2009. Patients and methods Details of 4605 elderly Dutch patients were obtained from the Netherlands Cancer Registry, containing data on all cancer patients in a population of 16 million. Three consecutive time periods were studied: 2001–2003 (A, before SABR became available), 2004–2006 (B, increasing availability), and 2007–2009 (C, full availability). Results Between period A and C, there was a 7% absolute reduction in patients going untreated, corresponding to an 8-month improvement in median survival (P < 0.001). Radiotherapy utilization increased from 31% to 38%, whereas surgical utilization remained constant (37%). Significant improvements in survival were observed in the radiotherapy subgroup (P < 0.001) and surgery subgroup (P < 0.001), not in patients going untreated. There was no evidence of stage migration. Conclusions Population-based increases in survival of elderly stage I lung cancer patients were seen between 2001 and 2009. The introduction of SABR correlated with a decline in the number of untreated patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which evaluates the outcomes of stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) in elderly patients with stage I nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) at the VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands. At least 193 patients aged -75 years were evaluated where 80% were considered as medically inoperable and 20% declined surgery. SRT was well tolerated and almost all completed the treatment. The survival rates at one year is 86% whereas at 3 years is 45%.

The article offers information on the 2nd International VUmc International Symposium on Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SBRA) to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands on December 6-8, 2013.