The primary aims of this multicenter, prospective observational study were to investigate spiritual well-being, resilience, and psychosocial distress in an Italian sample of glioblastoma patients undergoing radiochemotherapy. The secondary aim was to explore the influence of demographic, clinical, and psychological characteristics on survival.

The assessment was conducted only once, within the first week of radiochemotherapy treatment. Spiritual well-being was evaluated by the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-being (FACIT-Sp-12), and religious/spiritual beliefs and practices were evaluated by the System of Belief Inventory. Resilience was evaluated by the Connor−Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Psychosocial distress was evaluated the by Distress Thermometer and Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale. We conducted an univariable analysis of overall survival (OS) using data from the most recent follow-up available, considering demographic and clinical variables that could influence survival. Follow-up was defined as either the time of death or the latest follow-up visit recorded.

We recruited 104 patients, and the median follow-up time was 18.3 months. “Distressed” patients had lower scores than “not distressed” patients on the FACIT-Sp-12 and CD-RISC. While OS was not significant according to the FACIT-Sp-12 threshold, the Kaplan−Meier log-rank test was 0.05 according to the CD-RISC threshold. Among demographic variables, age showed significant associations with OS (p = 0.011). Resilience showed significant associations with OS (p = 0.025).

Data showed that high spiritual well-being was associated with high resilience and an absence of psychosocial distress in our sample of glioblastoma patients undergoing radiochemotherapy. Patients with greater resilience survived longer than those with lesser resilience. Profiling spiritual well-being and resilience in glioblastoma patients undergoing radiochemotherapy can be seen as a resource to identify novel characteristics to improve clinical take-in-charge of glioblastoma patients.

In this study, the relation between radiation pneumonitis (RP) and a wide spectrum of clinical, radiographic and treatment-related factors was investigated. As scoring of low-grade RP can be subjective, RP grade ≥3 (RP ≥ G3) was chosen as a more objective and clinically significant endpoint for this study.

105 consecutive patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer underwent conventionally fractionated radio-(chemo-)therapy to a median dose of 64 Gy. A retrospective analysis of 25 clinical (gender, race, pulmonary function, diabetes, statin use, smoking history), radiographic (emphysema, interstitial lung disease) and radiotherapy dose- and technique-related factors was performed to identify predictors of RP ≥ G3. Following testing of all variables for statistical association with RP using univariate analysis (UVA), a forward selection algorithm was implemented for building a multivariate predictive model (MVA) with limited sample size.

Median follow-up of surviving patients was 33 months (9–132 months). RP ≥ G3 was diagnosed in 10/105 (9·5%) patients. Median survival was 28·5 months. On UVA, predictors for RP ≥ G3 were diabetes, lower lobe location, planning target volume, volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), lung V5 Gy (%), lung Vspared5 Gy (mL), lung V20 Gy (%) and heart V5 Gy (% and mL). On MVA, VMAT was the only significant predictor for RP ≥ G3 (p = 0·042). Lung V5 Gy and lung V20 Gy were borderline significant for RP ≥ G3. Patients with RP ≥ 3 had a median survival of 10 months compared to 29·5 months with RP < G3 (p = 0·02).

In this study, VMAT was the only factor that was significantly correlated with RP ≥ G3. Avoiding RP ≥ G3 is important as a toxicity per se and as a risk factor for poor survival. To reduce RP, caution needs to be taken to reduce low-dose lung volumes in addition to other well-established dose constraints.

Little is known about how integrated positron emission tomography-computed tomography (IPET-CT), both imaging tools and not methods of treatment, contributes to head and neck cancer patients’ outcomes. We analysed the clinical PET-CT findings and their correlation to the effects of applied contemporary disease management.

A retrospective analysis of 29 individuals who underwent treatment planning fusion of PET-CT for radiochemotherapy of locally advanced head and neck cancer between 2010 and 2016 was undertaken. Gross tumour volumes were categorised as small (≤36 cm3) or large (>36 cm3), and tumour responses to therapy were classified as complete or incomplete.

The overall rates of complete tumour response (CTR), 3-year crude survival and failure (all types included) were 80%, 41% and 55%, respectively. Comparative analysis of tumour volume subsets revealed no significant differences in the rates of CTR (p > 0.80), 3-year survival (p > 0.30) and locoregional recurrence (p > 0.70). CTR was associated with improved prognosis (p > 0.05) and fewer tumour relapses (p < 0.02).

Our findings, although not truly conclusive, appear in line with those in the literature. Smaller tumour volumes and CTRs shown on integrated PET-CT are likely to play important roles in the promotion of better prognosis, but further study with larger patient numbers and more data are needed.