Radiotherapy in the treatment of primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL)

The use of radiotherapy alone to treat primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) does not produce the high local control and survival rates that it does in limited extranodal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma outside the central nervous system (CNS). Even with doses of whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) to 40+20 Gy boost, the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) reported a local control rate of 39%. Seventy-nine percent of recurrences were in the 60 Gy region. The median survival was 11.6 months. This response to local radiotherapy is quite different from the response of non-CNS Diffuse Large Cell Lymphoma where doses of 30-40 and >40 Gy have a 75-90% local control rate. Neither systemic lymphoma nor PCNSL have a classic radiotherapy dose response. For PCNSL there appears to be a threshold dose that ranges in the literature between 30 and > 50 Gy with a median of 40 Gy. Therefore, when radiotherapy is combined with chemotherapy that crosses the BBB, WBRT and/or boost doses may be able to be decreased, especially in patients achieving a complete response. Promising data from the Centre Leon Berard suggest that this is possible. When such chemotherapy was combined with intrathecal chemotherapy and 20 Gy WBRT, they obtained a 56% actuarial 5 year survival rate. Confirmation of single institution reports of favorable results such as these are needed. Cooperative group and intergroup trials are needed to define optimal therapy.