Higher Reported Lung Dose Received During Total Body Irradiation for Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Is Associated With Inferior Survival: A Report from the Children’s Oncology Group

Esiashvili N, Lu X, Ulin K, Laurie F, Kessel S, Kalapurakal JA, Merchant TE, Followill DS, Sathiaseelan V, Schmitter MK, Devidas M, Chen Y, Wall DA, Brown PA, Hunger SP, Grupp SA, Pulsipher MA. Higher Reported Lung Dose Received During Total Body Irradiation for Allogeneic Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Is Associated With Inferior Survival: A Report from the Children’s Oncology Group. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2019 Jul 1;104(3):513-521. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2019.02.034. Epub 2019 Feb 23. PMID: 30807822; PMCID: PMC6548591.

To examine the relationship between lung radiation dose and survival outcomes in children undergoing total body irradiation (TBI)-based hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on Children’s Oncology Group (COG) trial. TBI (1200 or 1320 cGy given twice daily in 6 or 8 fractions) was used as part of 3 HSCT preparative regimens; allowing institutional flexibility regarding TBI techniques, including lung shielding. Lung doses as reported by each participating institution were calculated for different patient setups, with and without shielding, with a variety of dose calculation techniques. The association between lung dose and transplant-related mortality (TRM), relapse-free (RFS) and overall-survival (OS) was examined using Cox proportional hazard regression model controlling for the following variables: TBI dose rate, TBI fields, patient position during TBI, donor type, and pre-HSCT minimal residual disease (MRD) level.