memo - Magazine of European Medical Oncology

Wolff, Ladislaia; Kiesewetter, Barbara

2022 memo - Magazine of European Medical Oncology

doi: 10.1007/s12254-022-00800-1

Summary Scoring systems for classifying genomic alterations (GAs) with respect to their potential targeted anticancer therapies (TTs) may be useful for rational and evidence-based decision-making, for example in molecular tumor boards. Therefore, a working group of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) has developed a comprehensive and reproducible classification score that allows the ranking of GAs and TTs according to their level of evidence and clinical relevance. This score is called the ESMO Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets (ESCAT). Another score not explicitly developed for TTs but helpful in grading novel TTs is the ESMO-Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS). This tool was designed to objectively quantify the clinical benefit of novel approved therapies. The current review summarizes the status quo of these scores and their applicability for molecular tumor boards.

Waldstein, Cora

2022 memo - Magazine of European Medical Oncology

doi: 10.1007/s12254-022-00803-y

Summary Radiotherapy (RT) remains an important modality in the modern treatment of lymphomas. In Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), its role is stage-dependent. In early stage favorable HL, RT is an essential component of combined treatment. In early unfavorable and advanced stage HL, RT can be omitted if patients are positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) negative after chemotherapy. In non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL), RT can be used as definitive treatment of indolent lymphoma. In aggressive NHL, the role of RT is limited to consolidation therapy of bulky disease, extranodal involvement and in elderly patients. Overall, technology evolved from extended fields to involved-node (INRT) and involved-site radiotherapy (ISRT), with concurrent reduction in doses. This short review summarizes current evidence and provides a future outlook with regard to the role of RT in the treatment of lymphomas.