Mature Outcomes of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Spinal Metastases with 30 Gy in 4 Fractions

Abstract

<h3>Purpose/Objective(s)</h3> At our institution, 30 Gy in 4 spine stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) fractions is typically delivered for larger volume when multiple segments are included in the treatment volume and/or for the retreatment of spinal metastases. We report MRI-based local failure (LF) and vertebral compression fracture (VCF) rates for patients (pts) treated with 30 Gy/4Fx of spine SBRT. <h3>Materials/Methods</h3> A retrospective analysis of all pts with spine metastases treated with 30 Gy/4Fx from 2010 to 2021 from an institutional registry was performed. Demographic, clinical, dosimetric, and radiological data were summarized, and the primary endpoint was the MRI-based LF rate. Secondary endpoints included the incidence of VCF and overall survival (OS). Kaplan Meier was used to calculate LF and VCF per segment and OS per patient. <h3>Results</h3> Were included 116 pts with 245 treated segments in this analysis. The median number of consecutive segments in the treatment volume was 3 (1-7), and the median clinical target volume (CTV) was 126 cc (range, 10-863). Kidney (25%), lung (20%), breast (19%), prostate (19%), and colon (10%) cancer were the most common primary histologic types. 38% of pts had oligometastatic disease and 24% spine metastases only. 15% (17/116) of the patients were treated with postoperative SBRT. 31% of segments were re-irradiated for conventional palliative radiation, and 26% prior SBRT, failures. 25% of segments had a baseline VCF, 46% epidural disease, and 53% paraspinal tumor extension. The median follow-up per patient was 18.5 (range, 0.1-61) and per segment 10.7 mos (range, 0.1-59). The LF rates at 12 and 24 mos were 10.7% (95% CI 7.1-15.2) and 16% (95% CI 11.5-21.2), and for VCF were 7.3% (95% CI 4.4-11.2) and 11.2% (95% CI 7.5-15.8), respectively. 60% of failures had an epidural, and 23% a paraspinal, component. Age <68y (HR=0.43, 95% CI 0.19-0.95, p=0.038), volume of CTV <72cc (HR=0.09, 95% CI 0.01-0.70, p=0.021), and prior surgical stabilization (HR=0.25, 95% CI 0.07-0.81, p=0.021) were protective predictors for VCF on multivariable analyses (MVA). In particular, the VCF rate at 24 mos was 1.8% for pts with CTV volume <72 vs 14.6% for ≥72cc. Median OS was 20.3 mos (95% CI 14.8-27.1). Low grade or no epidural disease (HR=0.42, 95% CI 0.21-0.84, p=0.014), paraspinal disease (HR=3.07, 95% CI 1.68-5.62, p<0.001) and kidney primary cancer (HR=2.43, 95% CI 1.08-5.44, p=0.031) were predictors for OS on MVA, with a trend for oligometastatic disease (HR=0.56, 95% CI 0.31-1.02, p=0.059). No radiation-induced myelopathy was observed. <h3>Conclusion</h3> This first report for 30 Gy/4Fx as a novel fractionation for spine SBRT suggests high rates of local control and a low rate of VCF, particularly for those target volumes with a CTV<72 cc. However, our rate of VCF in very large treatment volumes (≥72cc) is comparable to the SBRT-induced VCF literature, where optimal management remains an active area of investigation.