[The polycentric multiple arc complanar technic, or telebrachytherapy. A 4-year experience (an innovative way for the...

The coplanar polycentric multiple 180 degrees single arc and narrow beams technique (PMA) allows high radiation doses to be delivered to the target, with similar dose distribution to that of brachytherapy. Since 1990, more than 100 patients have been treated: 80 had NSCLC, 12 had epidermoid head and neck (oral cavity and oropharynx) cancers, 8 brain tumors, 4 esophageal cancers and, sporadically, other patients had many other kinds of tumors, e.g., Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and sarcomas. X photons of a 12-MV Linac have always been used. NSCLC patients are assessable for local control, toxicity and survival, while the other patients only for local control and/or toxicity. As for 31 stage I-II lung cancer patients, CR has been observed in 82.8% of them and PR in 13.8%; the response was always assessed with chest radiography, CT, FBS, cytology and/or histology. The overall actuarial survival rate is 71% at 40 months, the disease-free survival rate is 75% and the local progression-free survival rate is 94%. As for 49 stage-III patients, CR has been observed in 40% of them and PR in 56%. The overall disease-free survival is 10% at 28 months (median survival: 14.37 +/- 0.6 months). The disease-free survival rate is 23%. The local progression-free survival rate is similar to the overall survival rate, which seems to prove the very high metastatic spread of this disease in advanced stages. Twelve head and neck cancer patients have been treated, 5 of them in stage II and 7 in stage IV. CR has been observed in all the patients in lower stages (100%), in 4/7 patients in stage IV (57%) and in 4/5 patients (80%) in the T4N0 subgroup. The response of brain tumors treated with the PMA technique is difficult to assess because radiographic, CT and MR images are difficult to correlate with patients clinical status. The patients in our series are still alive, with a medium follow-up of 7 months (range: 2-16 months). A longer follow-up is necessary before any other considerations on the effectiveness of this method can be made. This technique was used on the patients who were not eligible for the other techniques with high doses delivered to the tumor, because of its volume and/or shape. Four esophageal cancers were treated with palliative intent, because of absolute dysphagia, in alternative to HDR brachytherapy. All these patients have obtained symptom remission.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)