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Strahlentherapie und Onkologie
Published in: Strahlentherapie und Onkologie 5/2024

18-12-2023 | Brachytherapy | Review Article

Can interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy) be an alternative to surgery in early-stage oral cavity cancer? A systematic review

Authors: Dr.ssa Lorena Draghini, MD, Valentina Lancellotta, MD, Bruno Fionda, MD, Martina De Angeli, MD, Patrizia Cornacchione, RT, Mariangela Massaccesi, MD, Fabio Trippa, MD, Gyoergy Kovács, MD, Alessio Giuseppe Morganti, MD, Francesco Bussu, MD, Roberto Iezzi, MD, Luca Tagliaferri, MD

Published in: Strahlentherapie und Onkologie | Issue 5/2024

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Abstract

Purpose

Brachytherapy (BT), also known as interventional radiotherapy (IRT), has proven its utility in the treatment of localized tumors. The aim of this review was to examine the efficacy of modern BT in early-stage oral cavity cancer (OCC) in terms of local control (LC), overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and safety.

Methods

The SPIDER framework was used, with sample (S), phenomena of interest (PI), design (D), evaluation (E), and research type (R) corresponding to early-stage oral cavity cancer (S); BT (PI); named types of qualitative data collection and analysis (D); LC, OS, DFS, CSS, and toxicity (E); qualitative method (R). Systematic research using PubMed and Scopus was performed to identify full articles evaluating the efficacy of BT in patients with early-stage OCC. The studies were identified using medical subject headings (MeSH). We also performed a PubMed search with the keywords “brachytherapy oral cavity cancer, surgery.” The search was restricted to the English language. The timeframe 2002–2022 as year of publication was considered. We analyzed clinical studies of patients with OCC treated with BT alone only as full text; conference papers, surveys, letters, editorials, book chapters, and reviews were excluded.

Results

The literature search resulted in 517 articles. After the selection process, 7 studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were included in this review, totaling 456 patients with early-stage node-negative OCC who were treated with BT alone (304 patients). Five-year LC, DFS, and OS for the BT group were 60–100%, 82–91%, and 50–84%, respectively.

Conclusion

In conclusion, our review suggests that BT is effective in the treatment of early-stage OCC, particularly for T1N0 of the lip, mobile tongue, and buccal mucosa cancers, with good functional and toxicity profiles.
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Metadata
Title
Can interventional radiotherapy (brachytherapy) be an alternative to surgery in early-stage oral cavity cancer? A systematic review
Authors
Dr.ssa Lorena Draghini, MD
Valentina Lancellotta, MD
Bruno Fionda, MD
Martina De Angeli, MD
Patrizia Cornacchione, RT
Mariangela Massaccesi, MD
Fabio Trippa, MD
Gyoergy Kovács, MD
Alessio Giuseppe Morganti, MD
Francesco Bussu, MD
Roberto Iezzi, MD
Luca Tagliaferri, MD
Publication date
18-12-2023
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Strahlentherapie und Onkologie / Issue 5/2024
Print ISSN: 0179-7158
Electronic ISSN: 1439-099X
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00066-023-02184-5

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