[Survival and pattern of failure in palliative endobronchial HDR -- brachytherapy using iridium 192 in recurring...

To evaluate the impact of palliative high dose rate brachytherapy on survival and a pattern of failure, we performed a matched pair study. 94 patients with tumor recurrence after external beam radiation received endobronchial brachytherapy. They were followed prospectively and matched retrospectively with 94 comparable patients who had not received brachytherapy. Matched parameters were age, gender, smoking behaviour, histology, tumor stage, EBRT-dose and fractionation. The leading cause of death in both groups was generalized tumor growth. In the combined therapy group, fatal hemorrage was 27.7 %, two and a half times higher than in the EBRT group with 10.6 %, whereas respiratory insufficiency in the brachytherapy group was 6.4 % and 11.7 % in the EBRT group. A complete remission after brachytherapy yielded a 10.5 months longer mean survival. Patients dying from fatal hemorrhage after endobronchial brachytherapy lived on average 10.2 months longer than matched EBRT patients dying from the same cause. Analyzing the time-course of fatal hemorrage in the brachytherapy group we conclude that - because of its early onset in the first 10 months after induction of therapy roughly 20 % of the deaths can be attributed to a radiation damage. In those patients who died after 10 months the major cause of fatal hemorrhage was the natural course of sqamous cell carcinoma with prolonged survival.