The Utility of External Beam Radiotherapy for Haemoptysis Secondary to Aspergillomata and Structural Lung Diseases in Patients Who Are Refractory to Medical Management and Not Surgical Candidates: A Pilot Study

Currently the best curative treatment of massive haemoptysis is surgical resection of the affected portion of lung. For patients who do not qualify for surgery, there are few alternative interventions, most of which only provide a temporary solution.

Surgical resection of the diseased areas, which offers the possibility of cure, is best performed as an elective procedure. It carries a not insignificant mortality, with reports varying between 1% and 50%. Unfortunately, many patients admitted to Tygerberg Academic Hospital, are not candidates for either elective or emergency surgical resection. The most common reasons for inoperability are: irresectable disease (i.e. damage to the lungs is bilateral and too extensive to allow resection, or the site of bleeding is not known); or severely reduced cardiopulmonary reserves secondary to extensive pre-existing lung damage, making lung resection surgery impossible due to excessively high mortality risk.

Repeat BAE (as a palliative measure in inoperable cases) is not always technically feasible and does not always lead to cessation of the bleeding. Additionally long term recurrence rates following BAE are variable estimated at between 18-42%, and carries a high mortality.

A significant number of patients with massive haemoptysis do not qualify for either surgery or BAE, thus rendering them without treatment option, save palliation with long-term opiates. Their fate is that of recurrent haemoptysis and a high associated mortality. Endobronchial occluding devices have been considered, however their high cost and required expertise prohibits their extensive use.

A novel treatment of this condition potentially is external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). A case report of five patients has documented EBRT in the setting of mycetoma where between 7 and 14Gy was used, with cessation of life threatening haemoptysis. However follow-up was limited to 6 months, and the effects of EBRT in the setting of post-tuberculous structural lung disease without mycetoma is not known. The potential mechanism of the achieved haemostasis was speculated as being the induction of radiation damage to the radiosensitive capillaries, with subsequent inflammatory response, in keeping with previous rat models of lung perfusion following high dose (30Gy) EBRT exposure.