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Radiotherapy in Oncological Emergencies Final Results of A Patterns of Care Study in Germany Austria and Switzerland
Radiotherapy in Oncological Emergencies Final Results of A Patterns of Care Study in Germany Austria and Switzerland
To cite this article: Elmar Christian, Irinaeus A. Adamietz, Normann Willich, Ulrich Schäfer, Oliver
Micke & (for the German Working Group “Palliative Radiotherapy” of the German Society for
Radiation Oncology (DEGRO)) (2008) Radiotherapy in oncological emergencies – final results of
a patterns of care study in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Acta Oncologica, 47:1, 81-89, DOI:
10.1080/02841860701481554
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Abstract
Radiotherapy (RT) is an important treatment option for emergencies in oncology. A multicenter patterns of care study
(PCS) was conducted in all RT institutions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In 2003 a standardized structured questionnaire was sent to all RT institutions. Number and type of staff involved,
number of patients, over time distribution and expense, treatment indications and concepts of emergency RT were assessed.
In addition, treatment outcome for the different indications was evaluated. The PCS was structured and analyzed according
to the model for quality assessment set up by Donabedian in three major components: structure, process and outcome.
One hundred and forty institutions (70%) answered the questionnaire. For the baseline of 2003 a total of 3 244
emergency radiotherapy indications with a mean of 28 per institution were reported. Forty percent of all institutions provide
a special 24 h service at night or weekends. Seventy percent of the emergency indications were irradiated between Monday
and Thursday, 30% between Friday and Sunday. Ninety percent of all emergencies were referred to RT between 8 a.m. and
6 p.m., 10% between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m.
The applied doses for emergency RT ranged between 2 Gy and 8 Gy (median: 3.5 Gy). Time expense was reported with a
median of 90 min.
The outcome analysis based on the treatment results of 1 033 patients: There was an improvement of myelocompression
in 50% of the cases, vena cava superior compression in 70%, bronchial obstruction in 70% and bleedings in 80%. A clear
dose-response relationship could not be established, but single doses of over 3 Gy in vena cava superior syndrome exhibited
a significant advantage.
This study represents the largest database in literature on emergency RT. RT was shown to be fast, time sparing and a very
effective treatment option for special oncological emergencies.
Correspondence: Oliver Micke, Klinik für Strahlentherapie und Radioonkologie, Franziskus Hospital, Kiskerstraße 26, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany. Tel: 49
521 5891801. Fax: 49 521 5891804. E-mail: strahlenklinik@web.de
literature dedicated primarily to emergency radiation As suggested by Hanks [6,9] and Coia et al. [10],
oncology [14]. this PCS was structured und analyzed according to
Patterns of care studies (PCS) provide an impor- the model for quality assessment instituted by
tant instrument for defining and evaluating treat- Donabedian [11,12] in three major components:
ment standards and quality assurance in radiation structure, process and outcome.
oncology; thereby, practice standards, treatment To facilitate the outcome evaluation in the differ-
guidelines and accomplishments can be assessed ent participating institution, only crude outcome
continuously [57]. data as percentage were requested. This approach
For this purpose, the PCS have been established has been proven of value in prior PCS [1316].
for a large variety of malignant as well benign Improvement was defined as a symptomatic re-
conditions [8]. sponse. A symptomatic response is defined by more
Therefore, the German Working Group ‘‘Palliative than a 25% decrease of symptoms intensity.
Radiotherapy’’ of the German Society for Radiation To determine the interrelationship between these
Oncology (DEGRO) conducted a multi-center pat- factors a multivariate analysis was performed by
terns of care study (PCS) in all RT institutions in analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The aim of this PCS was to evaluate whether the
Results
instrument of PCS is suitable in this context and to
analyze the standard of care applied in emergency RT. Structural data
Of the 140 institutions participating in the survey,
Material and methods there were 37 university hospitals (26.4%), 88
community hospitals (62.9%), and 15 private in-
In 2003, a Patterns of Care Study Panel of German
stitutions (10.7%) (Table I).
Working Group ‘‘Palliative Radiotherapy’’ of the
As a baseline, in the year 2003, the participating
German Society for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO) institutions reported a total of 3 244 patients treated
developed a structured and standardized question- per annum with emergency RT. There was a median
naire (Appendix A) and mailed it to all RT depart- number of patients per institution of 18 (mean 28)
ments in Germany, Austria and Switzerland with the cases with a range between one and 220 cases.
aim of identifying their institutional experience with Emergency RT represented 3.1% of all RT indica-
radiotherapy for oncological emergencies. tions of the participating RT facilities.
In this systematic approach the use of a dedicated Overall, 126 (90%) RT institutions in Germany,
24-hour service, the number and type of staff 10 (7.1%) in Switzerland and 4 (2.9%) in Austria
involved, RT equipments, total number of patients, participated in the PCS.
distribution over time, treatment indications, time The most frequent indications for emergency RT
expense and treatment concepts and of emergency were acute myelocompression (42.3%), vena cava
RT was assessed. Treatment outcomes of the differ- superior syndrome (27.7%), bronchial obstruction
ent emergency indications were analyzed. In case of (8.2%), tumor bleeding (8.5%), increased brain
unclear or incomplete data acquisition, interviews or pressure (11.3%) and other not specified indications
visits to the institutions were applied to acquire the (2%) (Figure 1).
appropriate institutional and clinical information.
The relatively high response rate [140 (70%)]
allowed an extensive and representative data analysis Process data
for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. A total of A total of 39.3% (55/140) of RT institutions provide
1 033 patients were clinically retrospectively evalu- a special dedicated 24-hour service at night or on
ated to obtain outcome data. weekends. During this period patients were evalu-
The statistical description of all relevant para- ated and radiation treated.
meters included the median, mean, standard devia-
tion, and range for all continuous variables, and the
absolute and relative values for all categorical vari-
Table I. Type and distribution of participating institutions.
ables. The differences between the frequencies of
groups were analyzed with the Fisher’s exact and x2
Type of Hospital Number of Participating
tests; the mean values of group frequencies were 140 of 200 (70%) Institutions
analyzed with the Student’s t-test. All statistical
analyses were performed using the commercially University Hospitals 37 (26.4%)
Community Hospitals 88 (62.9%)
available program package SPSS 11.5.1 (SPSS,
Private Institutions 15 (10.7%)
Chicago, IL).
Radiotherapy in oncological emergencies 83
Vena Cava Syndrome In 112 of 140 institutions (80%) the technical
27.7%
Bronchial Obstructions equipment for application of emergency RT consisted
8.2% of linear accelerators, 25 (17.9%) used Cobalt-60
machines, 44 (31.4%) brachytherapy units, and eight
Tumor Bleeding (5.7%) not specified treatment units. Treatment
8.5%
simulators were generally not utilized, in the majority
of patients treatment set-up was done clinically.
The median time interval between presentation of
Brain Pressure the patient for emergency RT and the beginning of
11.3%
RT was 2 hours (range: 0.5 to 36 hours).
Other not spec.
2.0%
Myelocompression The particular time expense was reported to be a
42.3%
median of 90 minutes (range. 20 to 180 minutes)
Figure 1. Distribution of indications for emergency RT treat- (Figure 3).
ment. A special range of RT dose and fractionation
concepts were applied. The dose used for single
fractions at the commencement of emergency RT
This service was significantly more frequently ranged from 2 to 8 Gy with a median dose of 3.5 Gy
provided in university hospitals (70.3%), compared (Figure 4). The most often used fractionation
to community hospital (28.4%) or private institu- scheme was ten times 3 Gy (30 Gy total).
tions (26.7%) (p B0.001), whereas the distribution As additional medication 113 institutions (80.7%)
of emergency indications is nearly the same in all gave corticosteroids with a median dose of 24 mg
institution. dexamethasone. Thirty institutions apply osmotic
Nevertheless, the most emergency RT treatments substances (21.4%) and 36 (25.7%) gave other non-
were performed in community hospitals (1 833/3 244; specified medications.
56.5%), followed by university hospitals (1 291/
3 244; 39.8%). Only a minor percentage of emer-
gency RT treatments were performed in private Outcome data
institutions (120/3 244; 3.7%). A total of 117 (85.7%) institutions provided detailed
A median of 70% of the emergency indications data for clinical evaluation of treatment outcome.
were irradiated between Monday and Thursday, Thus, clinical data and treatment results of 1 033
30% between Friday and Sunday. Overall, 90% of patients treated with emergency RT are retrospec-
all emergencies presented in the RT departement tively reported herein. The median improvement
between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., while only 10% rates in myleocompression were reported to be 50%,
presented between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m. (Figure 2). 70% in vena cava syndrome, 70% in bronchial
The personal equipment held up for emergency RT obstruction, 80% in tumor bleeding, 70% in brain
consisted of 0.80.404 (meanstandard deviation) pressure, and 80% in other indications (Figure 5).
radiation oncologists, 0.480.504 residents/interns, Sixty percent of all radiation oncologists in
and 0.410.567 technicians. this national survey considered RT in oncological
[%] 100 n 40
90
35
80
70 30
60 25
50 20
87 37
40
15 28
30 63
10
20 37 17
14
10 5 9
13
0 0
Mo - Do Fr - So 8.00 - 18.00 18.00 - 8.00 <= 30 min 31-60 min 61-90 min 91-120 min > 120 min
Figure 2. Time distribution of emergency radiotherapy related to Figure 3. Distribution of time expenditure especially dedicated to
week day and day time. emergency RT.
84 E. Christian et al.
n 50 other treatment indications there was no significant
45 difference in outcome.
40 Providing a special 24-hour service for emergency
35 RT showed a tendency (p 0.084) for a better
30 outcome in spinal cord compression.
25
44
20 39
15 Discussion
10 18 Since their first implementation in the United States
5 9
6 in 1973, the Patterns of Care Study (PCS) has been
0
< 3 Gy 3 Gy 3,5 Gy 4 Gy > 4 Gy established as a valuable tool for periodic evaluation
of the radiotherapy practice [7,17]. Its primary
Figure 4. Different fractionation concepts.
function is, as the founder Simon Kramer stated, to
improve the quality and accessibility of radiation care in
the United States. To this end the PCS seeks to establish
emergencies as a worthwhile and necessary treat-
how and by whom radiation therapy is being practiced in
ment indication.
the United States and to evaluate the factors, which affect
the levels of care presently being delivered [18]. Since
Interaction of components these early steps, evaluation of the quality of care has
become a most critical issue in the medical practice,
There was no statistical relationship between coun- and it is particularly important in the multidisciplin-
try, type of institution, overall treatment concepts ary management of cancer patients [19,20]. Subse-
and outcome. quently, the method of PCS was successfully
A clear dose-response relationship could not be transported to many other countries outside the
established, although there was a weak significance USA, e.g. Japan and Germany [21,22].
(p 0.048) favoring single doses of over 3 Gy in vena PCS analyzes the patient with regard to technical
cava superior syndrome. and interpersonal components with three criteria:
Relating the time interval until the start of structure, process and outcome [11,12]. Under-
emergency RT to outcome data, only vena cava standing the relationships of these three factors leads
superior syndrome showed a significant (p 0.021) to the measurement of quality in any specialty [6].
improved outcome with an earlier (52 hours) One major concern against PCS is that one must
beginning of emergency radiation treatment. In all rely on the statements of the participating institutions,
which may be subjective or inaccurate. As demon-
strated in our previous PCS reliable data can be
produced by controlling inconsistent or non-plausi-
80
ble information [1316]. Furthermore PCS are able
70 to provide a larger data base in disease, even if the
60 incidence would not allow large prospective con-
Improvement [%]
10
Structure data
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be considered that a radiation treatment, even with a special oncological emergencies. The delivery of
few high doses, can make the histological diagnosis radiation is accomplished by a variety of techniques
difficult or impossible. Gauden [27] even denies that and fractionation schedules. The selection of treat-
vena cave superior compression induced by broncho- ment technique and fractionation schedule should
genic carcinoma is a real oncological emergency, depend on the patient’s condition and the disease
because there is no observed mortality due to venous entity, volume and site.
compression, a relatively low response rate and a poor
survival outcome (6 months in responders and one
Acknowledgements
months in non-responders).
Our multivariate analysis revealed a significant The authors and the German Working Group
advantage for an earlier beginning in vena cava ‘‘Palliative Radiotherapy’’ of the German Society
superior syndrome, which is controversial in the for Radiation Oncology (DEGRO) are grateful to all
literature [2527], and a tendency toward a better institutions and radiation oncologists who partici-
outcome in spinal cord compression when a special pated in this study. Their cooperation in providing
24-hour service for emergency RT is provided. information made this unique national survey pos-
Several authors describe a better outcome in spinal sible.
cord compression when radiation treatment is
started earlier [1,3,4,23,24,28,30].
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Appendix A
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Personal equipment:
[ ] Radiation Oncologists [ ] Residents/Interns [ ] Technicians [ ] Physicists
Number: __________________ ______________ _________ ________
Personal Estimation: