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The retrospective chart review of 110 patients with T2 supraglottic cancer who underwent radiotherapy was performed to correlate tumor volume with other prognostic factors and to analyze its impact on treatment results. Patients with involved nodes, poor histopathological tumor differentiation, or hemoglobin concentration ≤ 14.3 g/dl had significantly larger tumors. Patients with large tumors had significantly lower 5-year local control rate, overall survival rate and presented significantly higher risk of nodal involvement and the ratio of poor histopathological differentiation of the tumor. Tumor volume significantly impacts radiotherapy outcome and should be considered to optimize treatment strategy for patients with T2 supraglottic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Conformal intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) involves irradiation of large volume of normal tissue with low and medium doses, biological relevance of which is not clear yet. Serum proteome features were used here to study the dose-volume effects in patients irradiated with IMRT due to head and neck cancer. Methods Blood samples were collected before and during RT, and also about one month and one year after the end of RT in a group of 72 patients who received definitive treatment. Serum proteome profiles were analyzed using MALDI-ToF mass spectrometry in 800-14,000 Da range. Results Major changes in serum proteome profiles were observed between pre-treatment samples and samples collected one month after RT. Radiation-related changes in serum proteome features were affected by low-to-medium doses delivered to a large fraction of body mass. Proteome changes were associated with intensity of acute radiation toxicity, indicating collectively that RT-related features of serum proteome reflected general response of patient's organism to irradiation. However, short-term dose-related changes in serum proteome features were not associated significantly with the long-term efficacy of the treatment. Conclusions The effects of low and medium doses of radiation have been documented at the level of serum proteome, which is a reflection of the patient's whole body response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]