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Focal therapy has been introduced as a novel treatment option for clinically localized prostate cancer. However, defining its role in the clinical space is still debated, especially with regards to identifying eligible candidates who will stand to benefit from treatment. Active surveillance (AS) is established as the preferred treatment for low-risk prostate cancer, with the goal of identifying those experiencing risk re-classification for curative intervention if it occurs. AS has been shown to be inferior to whole-gland treatments in to preventing progression or metastases. As a result, the field has sought solutions outside of the dichotomous options currently presented to men with low-risk cancer. Finally, the acceptance of preservation of sexual/urinary function and the avoidance of definitive therapy as valid endpoints has forced providers to think outside of survival alone as meaningful measures of success. It is here that focal therapy has emerged as a prospective replacement to AS or definitive treatment in carefully selected men. Combined with available risk stratification tools, focal ablation may afford patients durable oncological benefit while maintaining quality of life even in low-risk cancers.

Second primary malignancy (SPM) may occur after index head and neck cancer (HNC) treatment. This study evaluated the prevalence and outcome of SPM in patients with HNC treated with definitive radiotherapy. Eligible patients include those with index mucosal HNC treated with definitive radiotherapy between 2000 and 2010. SPM was defined as an invasive cancer at a noncontiguous site diagnosed at least 6 months after completion of radiotherapy. Clinical data were collected, and the Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate overall survival. In total, 1512 patients were studied. The majority of patients had index oropharyngeal cancer (86%). In all, 130 (9%) patients developed a SPM. The risk of SPM increased exponentially with time with 5-, 10-, and 15-year rates of 4, 10, and 25%. Half of SPMs were within the head and neck or thoracic regions. SPM rates were significantly higher (p

Background The current study was performed to assess the efficacy of surveillance imaging in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who are treated definitively with radiotherapy. Methods Eligible patients included those with a demonstrable disease-free interval (≥1 follow-up imaging procedure without evidence of disease and a subsequent visit/imaging procedure) who underwent treatment of HNC from 2000 through 2010. Results A total of 1508 patients were included. The median overall survival was 99 months, with a median imaging follow-up period of 59 months. Of the 1508 patients, 190 patients (12.6%) experienced disease recurrence (107 patients had locoregional and 83 had distant disease recurrence). A total of 119 patients (62.6%) in the group with disease recurrence were symptomatic and/or had an adverse clinical finding associated with the recurrence. Approximately 80% of patients with locoregional disease recurrences presented with a clinical finding, whereas 60% of distant disease recurrences were detected by imaging in asymptomatic patients. Despite the earlier detection of disease recurrence via imaging, those patients in the group of patients with clinically detected disease recurrence were significantly more likely to undergo salvage therapy compared with those whose recurrence was detected on imaging (odds ratio, 0.35). There was no difference in overall survival noted between those patients with disease recurrences that were detected clinically or with imaging alone. Approximately 70% of disease recurrences occurred within the first 2 years. In those patients who developed disease recurrence after 2 years, the median time to recurrence was 51 months. After 2 years, the average number of imaging procedures per patient for the detection of a salvageable recurrence for the imaging-detected group was 1539. Conclusions Surveillance imaging in asymptomatic patients with HNC who are treated definitively with radiotherapy without clinically suspicious findings beyond 2 years has a low yield and a high cost. Physicians ordering these studies must use judicious consideration and discretion.

Purpose/Objective Radiation-induced lymphopenia has been associated with poor survival outcomes in certain solid tumors such as esophageal, lung, cervical and pancreatic cancers. We aim to determine the effect of treatment-related lymphopenia during radiotherapy on outcomes of patients with oropharyngeal cancer. Materials/Methods A retrospective analysis of all patients who completed definitive radiotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and had blood counts taken during radiotherapy from 2002 to 2013 were included. Patient, tumor and treatment characteristics, clinical outcomes and lymphocyte counts during radiotherapy were recorded. Lymphopenia was graded according to the CTCAE v4.0. Survival rates were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and compared with log-rank tests. Results 850 patients were evaluated. The median age was 57 years. The majority of the cohort had p16/HPV-positive disease (71%), 8% had HPV-negative disease and 21% were unknown. The median radiation total dose was 70 Gy. 45% of patients had induction chemotherapy, and 87% had concurrent chemotherapy. 703 (83%) patients developed ≥grade 3 (G3) lymphopenia and 209 (25%) had grade 4 (G4) lymphopenia during radiotherapy. The median follow-up was 59 months; the 5-year overall survival rate was 81%. There were no significant differences in overall survival rates nor in disease control rates, in those who developed G3/G4 lymphopenia compared with those who did not. No significant effect of lymphopenia on survival was observed when analyzed according to p16/HPV status. Conclusion In this large cohort of patients with oropharyngeal cancer, the development of lymphopenia during radiotherapy did not impact outcomes.

To identify a clinically meaningful cut-point for the single item dry mouth question of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN).Head and neck cancer survivors who had received radiation therapy (RT) completed the MDASI-HN, the University of Michigan Hospital Xerostomia Questionnaire (XQ), and the health visual analog scale (VAS) of the EuroQol Five Dimension Questionnaire (EQ-5D). The Bayesian information criteria (BIC) were used to test the prediction power of each tool for EQ-5D VAS. The modified Breiman recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) was used to identify a cut point of the MDASI-HN dry mouth score (MDASI-HN-DM) with EQ-5D VAS, using a ROC-based approach; regression analysis was used to confirm the threshold effect size.Two-hundred seven respondents formed the cohort. Median follow-up from the end of RT to questionnaire completion was 88 months. The single item MDASI-HN-DM score showed a linear relationship with the XQ composite score (ρ = 0.80, p 0.001). The MDASI-HN-DM displayed improved model performance for association with EQ-5D VAS as compared to XQ (BIC of 1803.7 vs. 2016.9, respectively). RPA showed that an MDASI-HN-DM score of ≥6 correlated with EQ-5D VAS decline (LogWorth 5.5).The single item MDASI-HN-DM correlated with the multi-item XQ and performed favorably in the prediction of QOL. A MDASI-HN-DM cut point of ≥6 correlated with decline in QOL.

Radiomics is one such “big data” approach that applies advanced image refining/data characterization algorithms to generate imaging features that can quantitatively classify tumor phenotypes in a non-invasive manner. We hypothesize that certain textural features of oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) primary tumors will have statistically significant correlations to patient outcomes such as local control. Patients from an IRB-approved database dispositioned to (chemo)radiotherapy for locally advanced OPC were included in this retrospective series. Pretreatment contrast CT scans were extracted and radiomics-based analysis of gross tumor volume of the primary disease (GTVp) were performed using imaging biomarker explorer (IBEX) software that runs in Matlab platform. Data set was randomly divided into a training dataset and test and tuning holdback dataset. Machine learning methods were applied to yield a radiomic signature consisting of features with minimal overlap and maximum prognostic significance. The radiomic signature was adapted to discriminate patients, in concordance with other key clinical prognosticators. 465 patients were available for analysis. A signature composed of 2 radiomic features from pre-therapy imaging was derived, based on the Intensity Direct and Neighbor Intensity Difference methods. Analysis of resultant groupings showed robust discrimination of recurrence probability and Kaplan-Meier-estimated local control rate (LCR) differences between “favorable” and “unfavorable” clusters were noted.

A 47-year-old previously healthy man presented with acute moderate flank pain. Evaluation revealed left renal cell carcinoma, with inferior vena cava tumour thrombus invasion. Patient had no significant history or risk factors to pre-dispose him to genitourinary cancers. Surgery was deemed to not be appropriate due to distant metastases, but patient received targeted molecular therapy and immunotherapy with striking regression of the thrombus.

PURPOSE: To explore for fatigue-related regions of interest and the radiotherapy (RT) dose-fatigue relationship in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) survivors. METHODS: Eighty disease-free NPC survivors completed the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Head and Neck module (MDASI-HN) after RT. Fatigue was evaluated by the MDASI-HN fatigue item (MDASI-HN-F) and Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events v3.0 (CTC-AE), between 6 and 36 months after RT to determine the presence of chronic fatigue. Skull base MRIs and planning CT/RT dose were retrievable for 56 patients. Dosimetric data were extracted for 10 MRI-defined potential fatigue at-risk structures (FARS): brainstem (BS), pituitary gland (PG), hypothalamus (HT), basal ganglia, internal capsule, pineal gland, sub-thalamic nuclei, thalamus, substantia nigra, and hippocampus (HC). Recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) were used to identify dose-volume effects associated with chronic fatigue. RESULTS: 56 pts formed the cohort. Thirty patients (54%) reported any fatigue per MDASI-HN-F. Thirty-three pts (59%) had any fatigue by CTC-AE. The maximum point doses (Dmax) for PG, BS, HC, and HT were numerically higher in patients with fatigue. Dmax and Dmean of the PG were significantly higher in patients with chronic fatigue, p ≤ 0.01. A dose-volume threshold of PG V52Gy ≥16% (Logworth 2.4, AUC 0.7) was identified on RPA, and potential sensitivity to the PG doses was observed in younger patients (< 53 years-old). CONCLUSION: A dose-fatigue relationship was identified for the pituitary gland, both patient-reported and observer ratings. We recommend limiting the Dmax of PG to

Cancers arising from the oropharynx have become increasingly more studied in the past few years, as they are now epidemic domestically. These tumors are treated with definitive (chemo)radiotherapy, and have local recurrence as a primary mode of clinical failure. Recent data suggest that ‘radiomics’, or extraction of image texture analysis to generate mineable quantitative data from medical images, can reflect phenotypes for various cancers. Several groups have shown that developed radiomic signatures, in head and neck cancers, can be correlated with survival outcomes. This data descriptor defines a repository for head and neck radiomic challenges, executed via a Kaggle in Class platform, in partnership with the MICCAI society 2016 annual meeting.These public challenges were designed to leverage radiomics and/or machine learning workflows to discriminate HPV phenotype in one challenge (HPV status challenge) and to identify patients who will develop a local recurrence in the primary tumor volume in the second one (Local recurrence prediction challenge) in a segmented, clinically curated anonymized oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) data set.

6610 Background: The goal of surveillance is to detect potentially salvageable recurrence, allowing early salvage treatment and thereby improving clinical outcomes. Currently, there is limited data on the optimal frequency of imaging for head and neck cancer patients treated with definitive radiotherapy. This study aims to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of surveillance imaging in this group of patients. Methods: Eligible patients included those with a demonstrable disease free interval (≥ 1 follow up scan without evidence of disease and a subsequent visit/scan) treated between 2000-2010. Age, tumor site and stage, induction chemotherapy use, dose/ fractionation, mode of detection of recurrence, salvage therapy, number and modality of scans were recorded. Deaths from disease recurrence or from other causes were also recorded. Imaging costs were calculated based on the 2016 Medicare fee schedule. Results: 1508 patients were included. Mean age was 55.8 years (range: 17-87). Median overall survival was 99 months (range: 6-199). Mean imaging follow up period was 70 months. 190 (12.6%) patients had disease recurrence – 107 locoregional (LR) and 83 distant. 119 (62.6%) of the relapsed group were symptomatic and/or had an adverse clinical finding associated with recurrence. 80.4% of LR relapses presented with a clinical finding, while 60.2% of distant relapses were detected via imaging alone in asymptomatic patients. There was no difference between the successful salvage rates and overall survival between those with relapses detected clinically or via imaging alone. 70% of relapses occurred within the first 2 years post-treatment. In those who relapsed after 2 years, the median time to relapse was 51 months (2 LR and 11 distant relapses). After 2 years, the average cost for detecting a salvageable recurrence for image-detected group was $741 447.41, and the cost for preventing 1 recurrence-related death for image-detected disease was $889 736.89. The number of scans required to detect a salvageable recurrence in an asymptomatic patient after 2 years was 3512. Conclusions: Surveillance imaging in asymptomatic patients without clinically suspicious findings beyond 2 years requires judicious consideration.