Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma treated with electron beam irradiation in Indian patients

Advantages and implications of high dose rate (HDR) total skin electron irradiation (TSEI) for the management of Mycosis Fungoides. Indian experience

BACKGROUND

Mycosis Fungoides (MF) is an indolent lymphoproliferative disorder affecting dermis caused by abnormal proliferation of CD4+ T-cells. Radiation therapy is the most effective modality of treatment for MF which offers cure in limited stage disease and desirable palliation in advance stage disease. Treating entire skin having many curved surfaces and folds with radiation is the real challenge for the radiation oncologist. Many techniques, dose schedules and modifications in total skin electron irradiation (TSEI) have been tried since 1950s. TSEI treatment is a very time consuming, inconvenient and physically challenging to both patient as well as oncologist.

AIM

At our center TSEI was performed since 1983 with conventional linear accelerator where the treatment time was prolonged beyond two hours, which was very difficult or the patient, oncologist, technical officer and eating away the machine time hampering the treatment of other patients. From 1998 we shifted to high dose rate (HDR) mode, in order to bring down the treatment time of a single patient every day from two and half hour to 15 min. The reduction of treatment time increases patient compliance and at the same time saved machine time.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Between 1998 and 2003, eleven pathological diagnosed MF patients were treated using HDR TSEI. All the patients were male between 40 and 70 years of age, who had the history of having the disease for 7-22 months. Four patients had T2 and seven patients had T3 stage disease with more than 90% skin surface involvement. TSEI was performed with 4 MeV electrons with a daily fraction size of 120 cGy to a total dose of 36 Gy. At the end of 36 Gy, boost dose of 10 Gy was delivered to self shielding regions like sole, scalp and perineum. Considering the treatment related toxicities and consequent treatment interruptions, in the first seven patients, the last four patients were treated using similar HDR TSEI technique with modified treatment schedule, where the treatment was given on an alternate day basis following 2nd week of initiation of treatment.

RESULTS

The patients were followed over a period of 144 months with a median of 72 months. Nine patients are alive without any evidence of disease, one patient relapsed and one died due to progression of disease. The most common radiation related morbidities are erythema, skin blisters, various degree of desquamations, swelling of joints (specially small joints) etc. which are controlled by treatment interruptions and conservative measures. By modifying the treatment schedule, the incidence of toxicity as well as treatment interruptions were brought down.

CONCLUSIONS

We can conclude that HDR-TSEI is an excellent and safe therapeutic modality for the patients with MF both curative as well as palliative without any added toxicity profile, provided patient positioning is done properly.

Total skin electron irradiation treatment for mycosis fungoides with a new alternate daily treatment schedule to minimize radiation-associated toxicity: a preliminary experience

Conventional total skin electron irradiation (TSEI) for mycosis fungoides (MF) causes radiation toxicity, requiring treatment interruptions that prolong the treatment period, making patient compliance poor. We evaluated an alternate daily treatment schedule of TSEI, using a high dose rate (HDR) to minimize radiation toxicity and shorten the treatment duration. Four patients (aged 45-73 years with MF duration of 7-22 months) were treated by TSEI using HDR. The treatment was given on 5 days/week for 2 weeks followed by treatment on alternate days to deliver a total dose of 36 Gy. All the patients completed treatment in 10 weeks and had complete remission. Radiation toxicity was much less common with this schedule, requiring no treatment interruption. All the patients were until in remission after 60-84 months of follow-up. This schedule of TSEI treatment caused minimal radiation toxicity and allowed completion of treatment over a shorter period, giving good clinical remission and prolonged disease-free survival.

Total skin electron irradiation therapy in mycosis fungoides using high-dose rate mode: A preliminary experience

INTRODUCTION

Total skin electron irradiation (TSEI) therapy is the treatment of choice for mycosis fungoides. However, conventional TSEI therapy is time consuming as well as patient unfriendly. Therefore we used high-dose rate (HDR) mode TSEI in these patients. High-dose rate mode of TSEI is a technological innovation attached to a Linear Accelerator (Philips, SL-20, Netherlands), which can deliver an electron beam of 30 Gy/min at the iso-center. The iso-center faces the patient, 100 cm away from the target of the linear accelerator. The patient is treated at a distance of 10 feet from the iso-center of the linear accelerator. The dose delivered to the skin was 1.13 Gy/min, making the treatment execution much easier and patient compliance much better.

METHODS

Seven male patients between 40 and 64 years in age having mycosis fungoides for 9-18 months were treated by TSEI using high-dose rate mode between 1998 and 2000. The TSEI was performed according to the Stanford technique, delivering a total dose of 36 Gy. Each patient received a dose of 1.2 Gy/field/day. There were six fields, i.e. anterior, posterior, left and right anterior obliques, and left and right posterior obliques in both the upper and lower parts of the body. The eyes and nails were shielded at each session of radiotherapy. The times taken at each session of the therapy and radiation-associated side-effects were determined in each patient. The patients were followed up to 26 months (median 9 months) to look for any relapse.

RESULTS

Three patients had early stage disease (IB) whereas four patients had advanced disease (IIB). Six patients out of these had complete remission following TSEI while one patient died as a result of progression of the disease during treatment. The treatment time taken at each treatment session in each individual patient was approximately 15 min. Radiation-associated morbidity was seen in all patients. Cutaneous lesions relapsed in two patients after 4 and 10 months, respectively, while four patients were alive without the disease at the end of 2 years.

CONCLUSIONS

Total skin electron irradiation using high-dose rate mode delivery of electrons is an easy, better, compliant and effective therapeutic modality for treatment of mycosis fungoides with an acceptable range of toxicities.