Stereotactic MRI-guided On-table Adaptive Radiation Therapy (SMART) for Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

High-dose magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided hypofractionated radiation therapy delivered using daily adaptive dose planning has been shown in a retrospective study to result in improved overall survival, relative to patients receiving lower radiation doses, in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer, without increasing the rate of serious gastrointestinal toxicity.

The goal of the proposed trial is to investigative in a controlled, prospective manner the robustness of this outcome, and to track quality of life over a 5-year trial period.

Prior stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) experiences for treatment of locally advanced pancreatic cancer entailed either single-fraction or multi-fraction approaches delivering 33 Gray (Gy) in 5 fractions. Excellent tolerance and tumor control has been demonstrated, but median survival remained approximately 14 months. This highlights the strengths and limitations of SBRT to current radiation doses for pancreatic cancer. A prior Washington University institutional study and retrospective review has shown the safety of delivering 67.5 Gy in 15 fractions for inoperable pancreatic cancer using a strict 'isotoxicity' approach of limiting the gastrointestinal (GI) organs at risk (stomach, duodenum, small bowel and large bowel) to 45 Gy to 0.5 cm3 or less. This regimen resulted in no grade 3 or higher GI toxicities, and only one death in the 19 patients with a median follow-up of 15 months. This is significantly improved from prior experiences, where approximately 15 months represents the median survival for most studies of inoperable pancreatic cancer.

A recent retrospective analysis of 42 locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients treated by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) guided radiation therapy at four institutions (University of California, Los Angeles, University of Wisconsin, Vrije Universiteit Medical Center (VUmc), Amsterdam, and Washington University, St. Louis) demonstrated that high-dose stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) or hypofractionated radiation therapy delivered using daily ADAPTIVE dose planning on an MRI-guided radiotherapy system (MRIdian, ViewRay Inc.) has the potential to further improve overall survival. A control group of 19 patients treated to more conventional radiation doses without frequent dose adaptation showed a median survival of 14.8 months, while patients treated to high radiation doses (n=23, maximum biologically equivalent dose at alpha/beta = 10 Gy, or BED10 of > 90 Gy) under daily or almost daily adaptive re-planning had an estimated median survival of 27.8 months (p=0.005). Interestingly, increased radiation dose delivery using daily dose adaptation was correlated with less grade 3 toxicity (0% in the high dose group vs 15.8% in patients treated to lower radiation doses without dose adaptation).

The compelling data of this retrospective study prompted the development of this current prospective clinical trial designed to assess the primary objective of grade 3 or greater GI toxicity at 90 days for patients with borderline resectable or inoperable locally advanced pancreatic cancer treated with MRI-guided on-table adaptive radiation therapy and soft tissue tracking with radiation beam gating to 50 Gy in 5 fractions. Secondary objectives include assessment of (1) overall survival at 2 years, (2) distant progression free survival at 6 months, and (3) changes in patient-reported quality of life (QOL) from pre-treatment to 3 and 12 months post-treatment.