Therefore, an RT quality-assurance program was added to the study protocol to detect and correct RT deviations. The authors report results from the trial RT quality-assurance program and its potential effect on patient outcomes.
Methods: To evaluate the effect of RT compliance on survival outcomes, a composite end point was created. It combined the information related to planning target volume coverage, target delineation, total dose received, and overall treatment time into 2 groups: non-RT-compliant NRC for patients who had unacceptable deviation s in any of the previous categories and RT-compliant RC otherwise. Abdominal recurrence-free survival ARFS and overall survival were compared between the 2 groups using a Cox proportional hazard model adjusted for known prognostic factors.
Results: Thirty-six of patients The 3-year ARFS rate was Local recurrence after macroscopic complete resection occurred in 13 of 89 patients This association did not translate into less local relapses after complete resection in the RC group. Multidisciplinary collaboration and review of cases are critical to avoid geographic misses, especially for rare tumors like retroperitoneal sarcoma.
Keywords: protocol compliance; quality assurance; radiotherapy; retroperitoneal sarcomas; soft tissue sarcomas. Publication types Research Support, Non-U.
