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18 F-FDG PET-CT is routinely performed as part of the initial staging of numerous cancers. Other than having descriptive, predictive and prognostic values for tumors, 18 F-FDG PET-CT provides full-body data, which could inform on concurrent pathophysiological processes such as malnutrition. To test this hypothesis, we measured the 18 F-FDG uptake in several organs and evaluated their association with weight loss in patients at diagnosis of esophageal cancer. Forty-eight patients were included in this retrospective monocentric study. 18 F-FDG uptake quantification was performed in the brain, the liver, the spleen, bone marrow, muscle and the esophageal tumor itself and was compared between patients with different amounts of weight loss. We found that Total Lesion Glycolysis (TLG) and peak Standardized Uptake Values (SUV peak ) measured in the brain correlated with the amount of weight loss: TLG was, on average, higher in patients who had lost more than 5% of their usual weight, whereas brain SUV peak were, on average, lower in patients who had lost more than 10% of their weight. Higher TLG and lower brain SUV peak were associated with worse OS in the univariate analysis. This study reports a new and significant association between 18 F-FDG uptake in the brain and initial weight loss in patients with esophageal cancer.

Background: Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for head and neck cancer (HNC) induces side-effects, including trismus, which impairs quality of life by causing difficulty to eat, speak, and maintain good oral hygiene, and by altering social life. Given the wide variation of reported trismus prevalence and as a first mandatory step for the preventive physiotherapy OPEN program (NCT03979924) this study evaluated trismus occurrence and its link with radiation doses., Methods: Study population was non-larynx HNC patients with epidermoid carcinoma treated with CRT, with or without surgery. A physiotherapist measured maximal interincisal distance before, during and after CRT, at 10 weeks and 6 months. The proportion of patients with trismus (with a 95% confidence interval) was estimated. Irradiation doses were analyzed between patients with and without trismus using non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test., Results: We included 45 patients (77.8% male), median age 61 years (range 41-77). The proportion of trismus at baseline was 24.4%, 26.8% at 10 weeks and 37.1% at 6 months. During radiotherapy, it was 27.9% at week 3 and increased to 41.9% at week 6. Trismus occurrence at 10 weeks was higher when the radiation dose to the ipsilateral lateral pterygoid muscle was above the median value, that is, 36.8 grays., Conclusion: Trismus occurrence differed according to radiation dose and cancer location. These findings highlight the necessity of early preventive physiotherapy programs to reduce trismus occurrence. The second step, of the interventional multicenter OPEN program, is currently evaluating the impact of preventive physiotherapy and patient education on trismus in a sample of 175 patients.

Adjuvant radiotherapy is one of the major anticancer treatments in early breast cancer patients. Acute and late radio-induced effects may occur during or after breast cancer radiotherapy, and their medical management is a major issue for radiation oncologists. Here, the present review of literature embraces complementary non-pharmacological interventions, which could be combined to adjuvant radiotherapy in order to improve patients care., (Copyright © 2021 Société française de radiothérapie oncologique (SFRO). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)