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Aims: Patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) are most commonly managed with chemotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT), which may or may not include non-involved regional lymph nodes in the clinical target volume. We present our results of CRT for LAPC using capecitabine and delivering radiotherapy to a limited radiation field that excluded non-involved regional lymph nodes from the clinical target volume., Materials and Methods: Thirty patients were studied. Patients received 50.4 Gy external beam radiotherapy in 28 fractions, delivered to a planning target volume expanded from the primary tumour and involved nodes only. Capecitabine (500-600 mg/m2) was given twice daily continuously during radiotherapy. Toxicity and efficacy data were prospectively collected., Results: Nausea, vomiting and tumour pain were the most common grade 2 toxicities. One patient developed grade 3 nausea. The median time to progression was 8.8 months, with 20% remaining progression free at 1 year. The median overall survival was 9.7 months with a 1 year survival of 30%. Of 21 patients with imaged progression, 13 (62%) progressed systemically, three (14%) had local progression, two (10%) had locoregional progression and three (14%) progressed with both local/locoregional and systemic disease., Conclusion: CRT using capecitabine and limited field radiotherapy is a well-tolerated, relatively efficacious treatment for LAPC. The low toxicity and low regional progression rates support the use of limited field radiotherapy, allowing evaluation of this regimen with other anti-cancer agents., (Copyright (c) 2010 The Royal College of Radiologists. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Distal oesophageal and Type I-II oesophagogastric junctional adenocarcinomas have a poor prognosis. In radical chemoradiotherapy, consensus is lacking on radiotherapy margins. Here, we review the effect of common imaging modalities on the extent of the gross tumour volume (GTV) and the evidence for margins. To do this, papers were identified from PubMed, and geometric uncertainties were combined using the British Institute of Radiology formula. CT and endoscopic ultrasound were best for GTV delineation, but the role of positron emission tomography is uncertain. Evidence suggests 3 cm proximal and 5 cm distal GTV-CTV (clinical target volume) margins (along the mucosa) for advanced tumours, but is lacking for early tumours and radial margins. Nodal spread, present in most pT2 tumours, is strongly prognostic and is initially to regional nodes (not wholly covered by typical radiotherapy). Calculated CTV-PTV (planning target volume) margins for three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy using literature estimates of tumour motion and set-up errors with bony online set-up correction, ignoring delineation errors, are 2.2 cm superiorly (sup) and inferiorly (inf) and 1.2-1.3 cm radially (1.3 cm sup-inf; 0.8 cm radially if the tumour's mid-position is known). As these margins may risk excessive toxicity, we propose treating microscopic disease for potentially curable tumours (cT2N0, some cT3N0), but gross disease only for advanced tumours. Recommended GTV-CTV margins are a maximum of 3 cm proximally and 5 cm distally up to cT2N0; 3 cm proximally and 5 cm distally for cT3N0 if anticipated toxicity allows; and 0 cm for cT4 and most node-positive tumours. The CTV-PTV margins above must be added to this for all stages. Methods of including elective nodal areas close to the GTV should be researched, e.g. nodal maps and intensity-modulated radiotherapy.