Radiotherapy Safe, Effective After High-Dose Chemotherapy With Stem Cell Grafts.

2001 JUL 26 - (NewsRx Network) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - After high-dose chemotherapy with stem cell support, radiation therapy can effectively treat high-risk breast cancer patients with limited toxicity, oncologists in Israel report.

Salomon M. Stemmer and colleagues at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tiqwa performed a study to examine "the feasibility, toxicity, and effectiveness of early locoregional radiotherapy after high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation in patients with high-risk American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Stage II-III and locally advanced breast carcinoma."

After a prospective trial, they found that radiotherapy is feasible shortly after stem cell transplantation and can enable local control of malignancy without producing life-threatening toxicity.

Almost all patients (140 of 147) were able to begin radiation therapy within 50 days of autologous stem cell transplantation although 16 patients did require brief treatment interruptions during radiotherapy. After a median follow-up of 36 months, only three patients had suffered relapses, Stemmer and coworkers said.

Hematological toxicity from radiation therapy was transient and not life threatening, study data showed. Almost one-quarter (22%) of patients did suffer from grade II skin toxicity, with another 6% developing grade III skin toxicity. No ...