Radiation Therapy to Women's Para-Aortic Region Safe

Treatment appears non-toxic to kidneys despite drop in creatinine clearance in most patients

THURSDAY, July 13 (HealthDay News) -- Women with gynecologic malignancies who undergo intensity modulated radiotherapy to the para-aortic area do not seem to develop impaired kidney function, researchers report in the June issue of the American Journal of Clinical Oncology.

John M. Varlotto, M.D., of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues studied factors affecting creatinine clearance in 23 gynecologic cancer patients treated with intensity modulated radiotherapy to the para-aortic area.

The researchers found that average creatinine clearance dropped from 109.23 milliliters per minute before radiotherapy to 90 mL/min after the procedure. Creatinine clearance levels increased slightly in six patients and dropped in 17 others.

Overall, the median drop in creatinine clearance was 17.6 percent, falling the farthest in patients with hydronephrosis, those under age 50 and in patients who had not received cisplatin, the researchers report. After a median follow-up of 10.9 months, none of the women had developed radiation-induced nephropathy.

"Our preliminary results indicate that intensity modulated radiotherapy [with or without] cisplatin chemotherapy to the para-aortic area of women is safe and is not associated with any clinical sequelae of renal toxicity despite a small decrement in creatinine clearance in most, but not all patients," the authors write.

Abstract
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