OBJECTIVE: Many cancer patients develop bone metastases, however the prognosis of overall survival differs. To provide an optimal treatment for these patients, especially towards the end of life, a reliable prediction of survival is needed. The goal of this study was to find new clinical factors in relation to overall survival.
METHODS: Prospectively 22 clinical factors were collected from 734 patients. The Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression models were used.
RESULTS: Most patients were diagnosed with lung cancer (29%), followed by prostate (19.8%) and breast cancer (14.7%). Median overall survival was 6.4months. Fourteen clinical factors showed significance in the univariate analyses. In the multivariate analyses 6 factors were found to be significant for the overall survival: Karnofsky performance status, primary tumor, gender, total organs affected, morphine use and systemic treatment options after radiotherapy.
CONCLUSIONS: Morphine use and systemic treatment options after radiotherapy, Karnofsky performance status, primary tumor, gender and total organs affected are strong prediction factors on overall survival after palliative radiotherapy in patients with bone metastasis. These factors are easily applicable in the clinic.

OBJECTIVE: Thymoma is a rare tumour. The most common treatment for thymoma is surgical resection, while the use of radiotherapy and chemotherapy remains controversial.
METHODS: We conducted a monocentric observational study of 31 patients diagnosed with thymoma from June 2004 to July 2020 at cancer centre in Strasbourg, France. We analysed the outcomes of the patients.
RESULTS: The 2- and 5- year locoregional relapse-free survival rates were 96.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 76.5-99.5%) and 68.0% (95% CI: 43.8-83.5%), respectively. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy significantly improved local tumour control (P=0.0008 and 0.04, respectively), while a larger initial tumour size significantly worsened local control rates (P=0.04). The 5- and 10-year overall survival rates were 87.1% (95% CI: 69.2-95%) and 81.7% (95% CI: 60.3-92.2%), respectively. The median overall survival was not reached, and no favourable factor was retrieved. For relapsed patients, the median overall survival after relapse was 115 months.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite the inherent limitations of retrospective studies with a limited patient sample size, we demonstrated that chemotherapy and radiotherapy in addition to surgery were effective in achieving local control and contributed to improving patient outcomes in thymoma. Notably, an aggressive treatment strategy at the time of relapse resulted in favourable outcomes for retreated patients.

OBJECTIVE: Although some genetic alterations in glioblastoma (GBM) have been characterized, the prognostic value of these gene mutations is not yet established in patients treated with standard therapy.
METHODS: 40 patients with newly diagnosed GBM, treated between July 2017 and December 2019, and who had genomic analysis were analyzed. Next-generation sequencing techniques (NGS) were used with a panel of 26 genes. Patients were grouped according to MGMT status, the presence or absence of at least one mutated gene on the panel, and p53 expression by immunohistochemistry.
RESULTS: the median follow-up was 11.5 months (1.0-37). For all patients, the median duration of progression-free survival was 8 months (95% CI, 5.3-10.7) and the median overall survival (OS) was 17 months (95% CI, 7.5-26.5). Progression-free and overall survival were significantly different according to MGMT status but not according to NGS and p53 status. Three groups of patients according to different combined status could be distinguished due to significant differences in overall survival.
CONCLUSIONS: we have shown that the presence of MGMT promoter methylation is a good prognostic factor. By grouping the patients according to their MGMT, NGS and p53 status, three groups of patients could be separated according to their overall survival. However, these results must be confirmed on a larger number of patients.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to elucidate the impact on clinical outcomes resulting from re-irradiation for locally recurrent (LR) brain metastases (BM) using CyberKnife® stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).
METHODS: Seventy-seven patients with 254 LR BM lesions treated using SRS re-irradiation between January 2014 and December 2018 were analysed in this retrospective study. The local control (LC), overall survival (OS) rates, and adverse events were assessed. The adverse events were classified according to the Common terminology for adverse event (CTCAE) v5.0.
RESULTS: The median follow-up duration was 8.9 months. The median age of the patients was 55 years (IQR: 47-62). The 3, 6, and 9-month LC and OS rates were 92.2%, 73.4%, and 73.4% and 79.2%, 61.0%, and 48.1%, respectively. On multivariate analysis the gender (male vs. female; HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.06-3.01; P=0.028), type of first brain radiation (WBI vs. SRS) followed by re-irradiation using SRS (HR, 9.32; 95% CI, 2.77-15.27; P<0.001) tumour volume (>12cc vs. ≤12cc; HR, 1.84; 95% CI, 1.10-3.11; P=0.02), and recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) (I vs. II & III; HR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.19-0.70; P=0.001) were independent predictive factor for OS. Radionecrosis was reported in 3 patients.
CONCLUSIONS: With acceptable toxicity, SRS re-irradiation for LR BM showed a favourable rate for LC and OS and reported better OS for the female gender, a patient undergoing first brain radiation with SRS, tumour volume ≤12cc, and RPA-I. This result needs to be further evaluated in future clinical studies.

BACKGROUND: The benefits of physical activity (PA) in breast cancer are currently recognized in primary prevention. The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and then the National Cancer Institute (INCa) have reported conflicting results regarding the impact of post-diagnosis PA on breast cancer outcomes. The aim of this systematic review is to assess the association between PA after breast cancer diagnosis and overall mortality, specific mortality and risk of breast cancer recurrence in the literature.
METHODS: Randomized trials, prospective cohorts and meta-analyses studying post-diagnosis PA and overall mortality, breast cancer mortality or risk of recurrence after breast cancer published between January 1, 2014 and October 1, 2019 were included. The articles selected by the INCa report prior to 2014 were included in the literature review.
RESULTS: Eighteen articles have been selected. Studies unanimously concluded that overall mortality was reduced by post-diagnosis PA practice. For specific mortality, 5 meta-analyses showed a significant decrease in breast cancer mortality and 2 found a decrease in the risk of recurrence.
CONCLUSIONS: Post-diagnosis PA reduces overall mortality and appears to impact specific breast cancer mortality and risk of recurrence. However, these results need to be confirmed by larger randomized trials.

Brain metastases are the most common intracranial tumors and are associated with a dismal prognosis. The management of patients with brain metastases has become more important because of the increased incidence of these tumours, the better treatment of the systemic disease and the improvement of surgical techniques. The treatment requires multidisciplinary approaches and become complex because of new emerging systemic therapy and advancements in neurosurgery and radiation oncology. The surgical treatment has an indispensable role to obtain a tissue diagnosis, in relieving intracranial effect mass and improving neurological status by improving induced encephalopathy. An understanding of the role and indications of the surgery in patients with metastatic brain lesions is essential for the effective management of this growing population.

BACKGROUND: Orbital exenteration is a radical anatomically and psychologically disfiguring procedure. It is mostly performed for management of orbital cancers or cancers with orbital involvement. The lack of benefit in terms of overall survival and the development of new molecular therapies (targeted therapies, immunotherapy) in recent years leads us to question its use. The goal of our review is to answer to the following question: is orbital exenteration a viable procedure in 2019?
METHODS: A literature review was performed using the PUBMED and MEDLINE databases. The following terms were used then crossed with each other: \"orbital exenteration\", \"exenterated socket\", \"overall survival\", \"life expectancy\", \"orbital reconstruction\", \"socket reconstruction\". Oncology articles from the past 15 years were included and separated into those in the oculoplastic literature and those in the ENT literature.
RESULTS: Nineteen articles were included in this review. Eyelid tumours represent the main etiology of orbital exenteration. Basal cell carcinoma is the most frequently incriminated tumor, while sebaceous carcinoma and conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma are the most frequently encountered in Asian series. Non-conservative orbital exenteration is the most prevalent surgery performed. Orbital reconstruction depends on the surgeon\'s speciality: healing by secondary intention and split thickness skin grafts are mostly performed by oculoplastic surgeons, whereas regional or free flaps are mostly performed by ENT surgeons. Cerebrospinal fluid leakage is the most common intraoperative complication, encountered in 0 to 13 % of cases. The most common postoperative complications are ethmoid fistula and infection of the operative site, encountered in 0 to 50 % and 0 to 43 % of cases respectively. Orbital exenteration allows surgical resection of R0 tumors in 42.5 % to 97 % of cases. Overall survival following orbital exenteration is 83 % (50.5-97) and 65 % (37-92) at 1 and 5 years respectively. Identified risk factors for poor overall survival are: age, tumor histology (worse prognosis with choroidal melanoma, better prognosis with basal cell carcinoma), non-R0 surgical resection, locally advanced tumors (size>20mm, BCVA<20/400 and the presence of metastases at diagnosis). Recent studies have demonstrated favorable outcomes when managing locally advanced basal cell carcinoma, lacrimal gland cancer and conjunctival melanoma with targeted therapies or immunotherapies without performing orbital exenteration.
CONCLUSIONS: Orbital exenteration remains a major part of our therapeutic arsenal. Although orbital exenteration has failed to demonstrate any overall survival benefit, it allows satisfactory local control of the disease with an increasingly less invasive procedure. The development of targeted therapies and immunotherapies may change our therapeutic decisions in the future.

The immunotherapies known as \"inhibitors of checkpoint\" (ICP) are monoclonal antibodies used since 2010 and have dramatically modified the management of the advanced or metastatic melanomas. By reactivating the anti-tumoral immune response, these antibodies can activate the immune system in all the tissues with a risk to induce immune related adverse events (IrAE). Thus, the adverse effect\'s profile of ICP is considered as very different from that usually associated with conventional chemotherapies. The objectives of our retrospective monocentric study were the evaluation of the real life\'s safety and efficiency of the ipilimumab and the pembrolizumab in patients with an advanced melanoma. Seventy-two patients treated by ipilimumab and\\or pembrolizumab between August 1st, 2008 and December 31st, 2016 were investigated. The main IrAE occurring involved the gastro- intestinal, skin, and the endocrine systems. The average onset time of IrAE was 39, 104 and 68 days, respectively and their respective duration was of 67, 50 and 111 days. There were 13 events of grade III and IV along with one death. The overall survival was 5 months for the patients treated in monotherapy with ipilimumab, and 14 months for those treated by pembrolizumab. Our real life\'s study tends to confirm the current safety profile of ICP treatment. Moreover and according to our analyses, the drug sequence seems to have a global survival impact.

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a devastating malignancy with an overall 5-year survival of 8% for all stages combined. Most of the PC patients diagnosed have an advanced disease (40%) or metastatic stage (40%), which eliminates surgery as a potentially curative treatment. The disease course is often complicated by venous thromboembolism (VTE) events, which per se account for significant morbidity and mortality, with significantly worsen survival. PC is associated with the highest risk of VTE among all cancer patients. We review the literature data to address the incidence and clinical outcomes of VTE in PC patients. VTE incidence varies from 5 to 41% according to epidemiological studies and is as high as 57% in postmortem series. Since 2013, international clinical practice guidelines recommend primary thromboprophylaxis with a grade 1B level of evidence as an adjuvant therapy in advanced PC. A recent meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials investigating the benefit and risk of low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWH) in ambulatory advanced PC patients under chemotherapy showed that the incidence of VTE was 2.1% in patients treated with LMWH and 11.2% in controls (risk ratio, 0.18; 95% CI, 0.083-0.39; P<0.0001). In conclusion, improved earlier diagnosis and effective management of VTE, a frequent and life-threatening complication in PC, is warranted to improve PC patient outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Partial nephrectomy (PN) is recommended as first-line treatment for cT1 stage kidney tumors because of a better renal function and probably a better overall survival than radical nephrectomy (RN). For larger tumors, PN has a controversial position due to lack of evidence showing good cancer control. The aim of this study was to compare the results of PN and RN in cT2a stage on overall survival and oncological results.
METHODS: A retrospective international multicenter study was conducted in the frame of the French kidney cancer research network (UroCCR). We considered all patients aged≥18 years who underwent surgical treatment for localized renal cell carcinoma (RCC) stage cT2a (7.1-10cm) between 2000 and 2014. Cox and Fine-Gray models were performed to analyze overall survival (OS), cancer specific survival (CSS) and cancer-free survival (CFS). Comparison between PN and RN was realized after an adjustment by propensity score considering predefined confounding factors: age, sex, tumor size, pT stage of the TNM classification, histological type, ISUP grade, ASA score.
RESULTS: A total of 267 patients were included. OS at 3 and 5 years was 93.6% and 78.7% after PN and 88.0% and 76.2% after RN, respectively. CSS at 3 and 5 years was 95.4% and 80.2% after PN and 91.0% and 85.0% after RN. No significant difference between groups was found after propensity score adjustment for OS (HR 0.87, 95% CI: 0.37-2.05, P=0.75), CSS (HR 0.52, 95% CI: 0.18-1.54, P=0.24) and CFS (HR 1.02, 95% CI: 0.50-2.09, P=0.96).
CONCLUSIONS: PN seems equivalent to RN for OS, CSS and CFS in cT2a stage kidney tumors. The risk of recurrence is probably more related to prognostic factors than the surgical technique. The decision to perform a PN should depend on technical feasibility rather than tumor size, both to imperative and elective situation.
METHODS: 4.