2020-03-01
Nitroglycerin as a radiosensitizer in non-small cell lung cancer: Results of a prospective imaging-based phase II trial
Publication
Publication
Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology , Volume 21 p. 49- 55
Background: Nitroglycerin is proposed as an agent to reduce tumour hypoxia by improving tumour perfusion. We investigated the potential of nitroglycerin as a radio-sensitizer in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and the potential of functional imaging for patient selection. Material and methods: Trial NCT01210378 is a single arm phase II trial, designed to detect 15% improvement in 2-year overall survival (primary endpoint) in stage IB-IV NSCLC patients treated with radical (chemo-) radiotherapy and a Transiderm-Nitro 5 patch during radiotherapy. Patients underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced CTs (DCE-CT) and HX4 (hypoxia) PET/CTs before and after nitroglycerin. Secondary endpoints were progression-free survival, toxicity and the prognostic value of tumour perfusion/hypoxia at baseline and after nitroglycerin. Results: The trial stopped after a futility analysis after 42 patients. At median follow-up of 41 months, two-year and median OS were 58% (95% CI: 44–78%) and 38 months (95% CI: 22–54 months), respectively. Nitroglycerin could not reduce tumour hypoxia. DCE-CT parameters did not correlate with OS, whereas hypoxic tumours had a worse OS (p = 0.029). Changes in high-uptake fraction of HX4 and tumour blood flow were negatively correlated (r = -0.650, p = 0.022). The heterogeneity in treatment modalities and patient characteristics combined with a small sample size made further subgroup analysis of survival results impossible. Toxicity related to nitroglyerin was limited to headache (17%) and hypotension (2.4%). Conclusion: Nitroglycerin did not improve OS of NSCLC patients treated with (chemo-)radiotherapy. A general ability of nitroglycerin to reduce hypoxia was not shown.
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| , , , , , | |
| doi.org/10.1016/j.ctro.2019.12.002, hdl.handle.net/1765/123945 | |
| Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology | |
| Organisation | Department of Radiology |
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Reymen, B., van Gisbergen, M. W., Even, A.J.G. (Aniek J.G.), Zegers, C.M.L. (Catharina M.L.), Das, M. (Marco), Vegt, E., … Lambin, P. (Philippe). (2020). Nitroglycerin as a radiosensitizer in non-small cell lung cancer: Results of a prospective imaging-based phase II trial. Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology, 21, 49–55. doi:10.1016/j.ctro.2019.12.002 |
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