Patterns of failure following total body irradiation and bone marrow transplantation with or without a radiotherapy boost for advanced neuroblastoma.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the patterns of failure and outcome of patients undergoing high-dose chemotherapy, total body irradiation (TBI), and bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for advanced/relapsed pediatric neuroblastoma, with emphasis on the impact of a radiotherapy boost to primary and metastatic sites.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Between May 1986 and June 1993, 26 patients with advanced neuroblastoma underwent high-dose chemotherapy and TBI followed by BMT at our institution. The majority of patients were over the age of 2 years (73%) and were Stage IV at diagnosis (81%). Multiple metastatic sites were involved including bone (17), bone marrow (15), distant nodes (11), liver (5), lung (4) and brain (1). Twenty patients (77%) received cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg x 4 days) and TBI as consolidation therapy. TBI was delivered to a total dose of 12 Gy given in 2 Gy twice daily (b.i.d.) fractions over the 3 days preceding bone marrow infusion. A local radiotherapy boost of 8-24 Gy was given to 13 out of 26 patients (50%) to the primary and/or metastatic sites immediately prior to or following induction chemotherapy according to physician judgement. Sites not amenable to a radiotherapy boost included the bone marrow, diffuse/bilateral lung involvement, and multiple bone metastases (> four sites).

RESULTS

The actuarial overall survival of the 26 patients was 40.4% at 3 and 5 years, with a progression-free survival at 5 years of 38.5%. Six patients died of transplant-related toxicity (23%). The use of cyclophosphamide as high-dose consolidation chemotherapy was significantly better than other multidrug regimens used in terms of overall survival (p < 0.0001) and progression-free survival (p = 0.0004). The presence of liver involvement prior to BMT was a significant adverse prognostic factor by multivariate analysis. Of the 20 patients surviving the transplant, 10 (50%) underwent a local radiotherapy boost. The patterns of failure were as follows: 3 out of 10 "boost" patients failed overall, none in previous (old) sites of disease only, 1 in new sites only, and 2 in old and new sites; 6 out of 10 "no boost" patients failed overall, 4 in old sites only, none in new sites only, and 2 in old and new sites. There was a trend toward improved 5-year progression-free survival in patients surviving the transplant that received a boost (68% vs. 33%, p = 0.24). A failure analysis was also performed for each of the 59 initially involved sites, of which the majority (64%) were amenable to a radiotherapy boost. Overall, there is a trend toward less failure in sites amenable to a radiotherapy boost that were irradiated (1 out of 10) vs. those not irradiated (6 out of 28). Failure in the liver occurred in three out of four of the patients with liver involvement that did not receive boost radiotherapy, whereas all seven patients with distant nodal involvement were controlled without a boost. Long-term sequelae include learning difficulties (2), cataract formation (1), and hearing loss (2). Sequelae attributable to a radiotherapy boost occurred in only one patient who received whole brain radiotherapy and developed a cataract and learning difficulties.

CONCLUSION

We have found an actuarial 5-year survival rate of 40.4% for patients with advanced neuroblastoma treated with BMT, which compares favorably with results of other published series. Disease recurrence following BMT was most common in previous sites of disease. The majority (64%) of these sites were amenable to a radiotherapy boost. An analysis of failure suggests that a low-dose radiotherapy boost improves control of these sites.