UCSF Uses Mobetron to Treat Pediatric Cancer

[May 2000]  In a significant publication (1) , the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) reported that IORT, when used to treat advanced, high-risk, pediatric neuroblastoma patients, could substantially reduce the amount of post-operative therapy needed to control this disease. If the surgeon can effect a gross total removal (GTR) of the tumor, then a single application of IORT can achieve the same effect as up to 12 treatments (2 to 3 weeks) of external beam radiation therapy (EBRT). In the study, all patients received induction chemotherapy prior to the surgery and more than half also received post-operative high dose chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow transplant. With a median follow-up time of 54 months, 88% of the GTR patients are alive, 63% with no evidence of disease. All patients in whom only a subtotal resection (STR) of the tumor was possible died of progressive disease despite subsequent treatment. For patients in whom a GTR can be achieved, the authors are recommending IORT as the only primary site radiotherapy for these high-risk neuroblastoma patients. For patients with only STR, the authors are investigating combining IORT with EBRT. Since 1998, the Mobetron has been used to deliver all of the IORT treatments.

(1) "Intraoperative Radiation Therapy for High-Risk Pediatric Neuroblastoma", D. Haas-Kogan, et. al., Int. J. Radiation Oncology Biol. Physics., Vol. 47, No. 4, pp 985-992, April, 2000