Precision association of lymphatic disease spread with radiation-associated toxicity in oropharyngeal squamous carcinomas

Andrew Wentzel; Timothy Luciani; Lisanne V van Dijk; Nicolette Taku; Baher Elgohari; Abdallah S.R Mohamed; Guadalupe Canahuate; Clifton D Fuller; David M Vock; G Elisabeta Marai; Spatial-Non-spatial Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Radiotherapy Treatment/Toxicity Team SMART3

doi:10.1016/j.radonc.2021.06.016

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Precision association of lymphatic disease spread with radiation-associated toxicity in oropharyngeal squamous carcinomas

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Precision association of lymphatic disease spread with radiation-associated toxicity in oropharyngeal squamous carcinomas

Andrew Wentzel, Timothy Luciani, Lisanne V van Dijk, Nicolette Taku, Baher Elgohari, Abdallah S.R Mohamed, Guadalupe Canahuate, Clifton D Fuller, David M Vock, G Elisabeta Marai, …

Radiotherapy and oncology, Vol.161, pp.152-158

08/2021

DOI: 10.1016/j.radonc.2021.06.016

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/8479634View

Open Access

Abstract

•582 oropharyngeal cancer patients under radiation treatment were analyzed.•We aim to predict post-treatment aspiration or gastronomy tube dependence.•Tumor spread patterns to head and neck lymph nodes were identified.•Patients were clustered based on their unique lymph node spread patterns.•Patient clustered were significantly correlated with dysphagia 6 months post treatment.•Lymph node spread patterns are an effective prognostic indicator of late toxicity. To determine whether patient similarity in terms of head and neck cancer spread through lymph nodes correlates significantly with radiation-associated toxicity. 582 head and neck cancer patients received radiotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) and had non-metastatic affected lymph nodes in the head and neck. Affected lymph nodes were segmented from pretreatment contrast-enhanced tomography scans and categorized according to consensus guidelines. Similar patients were clustered into 4 groups according to a graph-based representation of disease spread through affected lymph nodes. Correlation between dysphagia-associated symptoms and patient groups was calculated. Out of 582 patients, 26% (152) experienced toxicity during a follow up evaluation 6 months after completion of radiotherapy treatment. Patient groups identified by our approach were significantly correlated with dysphagia, feeding tube, and aspiration toxicity (p < .0005). Our results suggest that structural geometry-aware characterization of affected lymph nodes can be used to better predict radiation-associated dysphagia at time of diagnosis, and better inform treatment guidelines. Our work successfully stratified a patient cohort into similar groups using a structural geometry, graph-encoding of affected lymph nodes in oropharyngeal cancer patients, that were predictive of late radiation-associated dysphagia and toxicity.

Medical Informatics

Head and neck cancer

Oropharynx cancer

Precision medicine

Radiation-associated dysphagia

Statistical data mining

Details

Title: Subtitle: Precision association of lymphatic disease spread with radiation-associated toxicity in oropharyngeal squamous carcinomas
Creators: Andrew Wentzel - University of Illinois Chicago
Timothy Luciani - University of Illinois Chicago
Lisanne V van Dijk - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Nicolette Taku - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Baher Elgohari - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Abdallah S.R Mohamed - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Guadalupe Canahuate - University of Iowa
Clifton D Fuller - The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
David M Vock - University of Minnesota
G Elisabeta Marai - University of Illinois Chicago
Spatial-Non-spatial Multi-Dimensional Analysis of Radiotherapy Treatment/Toxicity Team SMART3
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Radiotherapy and oncology, Vol.161, pp.152-158
DOI: 10.1016/j.radonc.2021.06.016
ISSN: 0167-8140
eISSN: 1879-0887
Publisher: Elsevier B.V
Language: English
Date published: 08/2021
Academic Unit: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Record Identifier: 9984197292002771

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