Surgery and intraoperative electron radiotherapy in recurrent or metastatic oligotopic extrapelvic cancer: Long-term outcome

PurposeTo evaluate the feasibility and long-term outcome of surgery combined with intraoperative electron radiotherapy (IOERT) as rescue treatment in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic oligotopic extrapelvic cancer.Methods and materialsFrom April 1996 to April 2010, we treated 28 patients using 34 IOERT procedures. The main histopathology findings were adenocarcinoma (39%) and squamous cell carcinoma (29%). The original cancer sites were gynecologic (67%), urologic (14%) and colorectal (14%). The location of recurrence was the para-aortic region in 53.5% of patients.ResultsMedian follow-up was 39 months (1–84 months), during which time 14% of patients experienced local recurrence and 53.5% developed distant metastasis. Overall survival at 2 and 5 years was 57% and 35% respectively. At the time of the analysis, 13 patients were alive, 6 for more than 55 months of follow-up.Local control was not significantly affected by the following histopathologic characteristics of the resected surgical specimen: number of fragments submitted for pathology study (1 to >6), maximal tumor dimension (≤2 to ≥6 cm), rate of involved nodes (0–100%) and involved resection margin (local recurrence 23% vs 7%; p = 0.21). Local recurrence was significantly affected by microscopic cancer in more than 50% of specimen fragments (38% vs 9%, p = 0.02).ConclusionsIOERT for recurrence of oligotopic extrapelvic cancer incresead long-term survival in patients with controlled cancer and appears to compensate for some adverse prognostic features in local control. Individualized treatment strategies for this heterogeneous category of patients with recurrent cancer will make it possible to optimize results.