Concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for head and neck cancer (HNC) is a risk factor for oral candidiasis (OC). As Candida spp. are highly virulent, we conducted a retrospective study to determine whether OC increases the severity of dysphagia related to mucositis in HNC patients. We retrospectively analyzed the cases of consecutive patients with carcinomas of the oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx who underwent CCRT containing cisplatin (CDDP) at our hospital. The diagnosis of OC was based on gross mucosal appearance. We performed a multivariate analysis to determine whether OC was associated with the development of grade 3 dysphagia in the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) Acute Toxicity Criteria. The maximum of the daily opioid doses was compared between the patients with and without OC. We identified 138 HNC patients. OC was observed in 51 patients (37%). By the time of their OC diagnosis, 19 (37%) had already developed grade 3 dysphagia. Among the 30 patients receiving antifungal therapy, 12 (40%) showed clinical deterioration. In the multivariate analysis, OC was independently associated with grade 3 dysphagia (OR 2.75; 95%CI 1.22-6.23; p = 0.015). The patients with OC required significantly higher morphine-equivalent doses of opioids (45 vs. 30 mg/day; p = 0.029). Candida infection causes refractory dysphagia. It is worth investigating whether antifungal prophylaxis reduces severe dysphagia related to candidiasis.

This study investigated the efficacy and safety of radiotherapy as part of multidisciplinary therapy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Clinical data of 49 HCC patients treated with radiotherapy were assessed retrospectively. The efficacy of radiotherapy was assessed by progression-free survival, disease control rate, and overall survival. Safety was assessed by symptoms and hematological assay, and changes in hepatic reserve function were determined by Child–Pugh score and albumin–bilirubin (ALBI) score. Forty patients underwent curative radiotherapy, and nine patients with portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT) underwent palliative radiotherapy as part of multidisciplinary therapy. Local disease control for curative therapy was 80.0% and stereotactic body radiotherapy was 86.7% which was greater than that of conventional radiotherapy (60.0%). Patients with PVTT had a median observation period of 651 days and 75% three-year survival when treated with multitherapy, including radiotherapy for palliative intent, transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, and administration of molecular targeted agents. No adverse events higher than grade 3 and no changes in the Child–Pugh score and ALBI score were seen. Radiotherapy is safe and effective for HCC treatment and can be a part of multidisciplinary therapy.

Although oesophageal candidiasis is usually a superficial mucosal infection, necrotising Candida oesophagitis has been reported to cause oesophageal perforation or lung abscess. We report the case of an elderly Japanese man presenting with painless dysphagia after thoracic radiotherapy for oesophageal cancer. Non-contrast CT demonstrated segmental and oedematous thickening of the oesophageal wall. Endoscopy revealed white plaques on the oesophageal mucosa. The patient's oesophagitis responded to systemic antifungal therapy, and did not lead to oesophageal perforation. He died of recurrent oesophageal cancer several months later. The importance of severe radiation-induced oesophagitis without pain, our pathophysiological hypothesis on the local oedema caused by Candida infection and the usefulness of CT in evaluating abnormal thickening of the gastrointestinal tract are discussed separately in the article.

Our objectives were to (1) investigate the feasibility of the use of the Japanese version of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised (HVLT-R); (2) identify the clinical factors influencing the HVLT-R scores of patients undergoing whole-brain radiation therapy (WBRT); and (3) compare the neurocognitive function (NCF) after WBRT in different dose fractionation schedules. We administered the HVLT-R (Japanese version) before (baseline) and at four and eight months after WBRT in 45 patients who received either therapeutic (35Gy-in-14, n = 16; 30Gy-in-10, n = 18) or prophylactic (25Gy-in-10, n = 11) WBRT. Sixteen patients dropped out before the eight-month examination, due mostly to death from cancer. The Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) 80–100 group had significantly higher baseline total recall (TR) scores (p = 0.0053), delayed recall (DR) scores (p = 0.012), and delayed recognition (DRecog) scores (p = 0.0078). The patients aged ≤65 years also had significantly higher TR scores (p = 0.030) and DRecog scores (p = 0.031). The patients who underwent two examinations (worse-prognosis group) had significantly decreased DR scores four months after WBRT compared to the baseline (p = 0.0073), and they were significantly more likely to have declined individual TR scores (p = 0.0017) and DR scores (p = 0.035) at four months. The eight-month HVLT-R scores did not significantly decline regardless of the WBRT dose fractionation. The baseline NCF was determined by age and KPS, and the early decline in NCF is characteristic of the worse-prognosis group.

To compare chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with low-dose continuous 5-fluorouracil (5FU) to CRT with 5FU+cisplatin (CDDP) for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in a retrospective cohort study. We reviewed the cases of Stage I-IV ESCC patients who underwent definitive CRT in 2000-2014. Concomitant chemotherapy was one of the three regimens: (1) high-dose intermittent 5FU and CDDP (standard-dose FP: SDFP), (2) low-dose continuous 5FU and CDDP (LDFP), or (3) low-dose continuous 5FU (LD5FU). The general selection criteria for chemotherapy were: SDFP for patients aged <70 yrs; LDFP for those aged 70-74 yrs; LD5FU for those aged ≥75 yrs or with performance status (PS) ≥3. Propensity scores were derived with chemotherapy (LD5FU vs. 5FU+CDDP) as the dependent variable. In a multivariate analysis, chemotherapy (LD5FU vs. SDFP, p = .24; LDFP vs. SDFP, p = .52) did not affect the overall survival (OS). LD5FU caused significantly less grade 3-4 leukopenia (9%) compared to SDFP (47%) and LDFP (44%) (p < .001). In a propensity-matched analysis, LD5FU affected neither OS (HR 1.06; 95%CI 0.55-2.05; p = .87) nor progression-free survival (HR 0.95, 95%CI 0.50-1.81; p = .87). CRT with low-dose continuous 5FU may be a less toxic option for elderly ESCC patients.

In September 2018, Girard et al. published the article ‘Extra cost of brain metastases (BM) in patients with non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): A French national hospital database analysis’ (1). They extracted the data of 2,500 metastatic NSCLC patients from the national medical information database and divided the patients into two groups: those with metastases other than brain (n=1,529), and those with BMs (n=971). The study’s analyses revealed that the presence of BM at diagnosis contributed to the excessive medical cost of €553 per patient-month, and Girard et al. stated that radiotherapy (RT) and palliative care are the principal components of the increased cost.