Dose escalation with simultaneous integrated boost technique in twice-daily radiation therapy for limited stage small cell lung cancer (LS-SCLC)

Abstract

The standard radiotherapy regimen for LS-SCLC was 45 Gy in 30 fractions delivered twice-daily, until the recent study published by Yu et al (1). This study indicated that escalating the dose up to 54 Gy provided to improve overall survival (OS) without increasing toxicity. However, real life routine practice data are scarce. We aimed to evaluate the survival in our cohort of patients who underwent dose escalation.

Material/Methods: Patients with LS-SCLC who were treated with a twice-daily radiotherapy (TD-RT) regimen based on 4D-CT simulation with integrated tumor volume approach, appropriate heterogeneity correction software and intensity modulated radiotherapy planning, utilizing dose escalation via the Simultaneous Integrated Boost (SIB) technique, were analyzed retrospectively. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate OS outcomes. Secondary objectives include assessing disease-free survival (DFS) and toxicity outcomes.