Helical Irradiation of Total Skin (HITS) for Cutaneous Lymphoma

Radiation therapy, Total skin electron beam therapy (TSEBT), achieves a high response rate and is an effective treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma affecting the superficial region. One the most widely used TSEBT techniques consists of six dual fields initially developed at Stanford University. However, deviations occur from the prescription dose up to 40% and the surface dose inhomogeneity as much as 90% in body areas such as the perineum and eyelid.

Helical tomotherapy (HT) has advantages in irradiating extended volumes with treatment length of up to 160 cm, continuously in a helical pattern without the need for field junction. Using HT, an image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy, to replace conventional TSEBT technique to increase dose delivery and decrease toxicities possibly. Recently, we published the possibility of helical irradiation of the total skin (HITS) by physical proving and showed the clinical results of HITS successfully for a woman with T cell lymphoma failure by chemotherapy, topic UV irradiation and local radiotherapy (RT) to overcome the surface dose inhomogeneity by conventional RT.

Here, investigators will enroll the stage I-IV cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) of International Society Cutaneous Lymphomas (ISCL)/U.S. Cutaneous Lymphoma Consortium (USCLC)/European Organization for Research & Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), patients who are candidates for TSEBT by recommendation of National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines (Version 4.2011, Mycosis fungoid/Sezary syndrome) or who are refractory or not feasible to the topic UV irradiation, Interferon alpha, psoralen plus ultraviolet A photochemotherapy, and Accutane® (Isotretinoin) or chemotherapy to receive HITS to replace TSEBT. Additionally, we will compare the advantages and disadvantages between the plan of HT and conventional RT for TSEBT.