Intrinsic radiosensitivity, genomic-based radiation dose and patterns of failure of penile cancer in response to adjuvant radiation therapy.

Optimal postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) dose is unclear in penile squamous cell carcinoma (PeSCC). Herein, we characterized the radiosensitivity index (RSI) and genomic-adjusted radiation dose (GARD) profiles in a cohort of patients with PeSCC, and assessed the application of GARD to personalize PORT.

A total of 25 PeSCC samples were identified for transcriptomic profiling. The RSI score and GARD were derived for each sample. A cohort of 34 patients was reviewed for clinical correlation.

The median RSI for PeSCC was 0.482 (range 0.215-0.682). The majority (n = 21; 84%) of cases were classified as radioresistant. PeSCC GARD ranged from 9.56 to 38.39 (median 18.25), suggesting variable therapeutic effects from PORT. We further determined the optimal GARD-based RT doses to improve locoregional control. We found that therapeutic benefit was only achieved in 52% of PeSCC lesions with PORT of 50 Gy, in contrast to 84% benefit from GARD-modeled PORT of 66 Gy. In the clinical cohort, the majority of patients presented with pathological N2 or N3 disease (n = 31; 91%) and was treated with adjuvant concurrent platinum-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT, n = 30; 88%). Fourteen of the 34 patients (41%) had locoregional recurrence (LRR), of which half had LRR within six months of completion of PORT.

The majority of PeSCC are intrinsically radioresistant with a low GARD-based therapeutic effect from PORT dose of 50 Gy, consistent with the observed high rate of LRR in the clinical cohort. A GARD-based strategy will allow personalizing PORT dose prescription to individual tumor biology and improve outcomes.

Reports of practical oncology and radiotherapy : journal of Greatpoland Cancer Center in Poznan and Polish Society of Radiation Oncology. 2019 Nov 01 [Epub]

Zhigang Yuan, G Daniel Grass, Mounsif Azizi, Kamran A Ahmed, G Sean J Yoder, Eric A Welsh, William J Fulp, Jasreman Dhillon, Javier F Torres-Roca, Anna R Giuliano, Philippe E Spiess, Peter A Johnstone

Department of Radiation Oncology, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 12902 USF Magnolia Dr, Tampa, FL 33612, USA., Department of Genitourinary Oncology, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 12902 USF Magnolia Dr, Tampa, FL 33612, USA., Moffitt Genomics core, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 12902 USF Magnolia Dr, Tampa, FL 33612, USA., Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 12902 USF Magnolia Dr, Tampa, FL 33612, USA., Department of Anatomic Pathology, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 12902 USF Magnolia Dr, Tampa, FL 33612, USA., Department of Cancer Epidemiology, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, 12902 USF Magnolia Dr, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.