Multinational retrospective study of pulmonary stereotactic body radiotherapy for oligometastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

A retrospective study at 16 centers in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland evaluated pulmonary stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for pulmonary metastases from oligometastatic (5 or less metastases) HNSCC. The median overall survival and progression-free survival were 33 months (95% CI 26-40) and 9 months (7-11), respectively. The one-year cumulative incidence of local failures was 5.5%. Acute grade 3 dysphagia was seen in one of 178 patients (0.6%), and grade 3 chronic toxicities were seen in two of 146 patients (1.4%) with no grade 4 or 5 toxicities. On multivariable analysis age > 65 years (HR 1.59; p=0.040) and female sex (HR 1.76; p=0.035) were associated with worse OS, whereas longer time between HNSCC diagnosis and first SBRT was associated with longer OS (<12 months versus ≥ 12 months: HR 1.56; p=0.034). The authors conclude that SBRT for pulmonary metastases from oligometastatic HNSCC achieves excellent local control with minimal toxicity.