Symptom relief, prognostic factors, and outcome in patients receiving urgent radiation therapy for superior vena cava syndrome: A single-center retrospective analysis of 21 years’ practice

Purpose Superior vena cava syndrome (SVCS) often results from external vessel compression due to tumor growth. Urgent symptom-guided radiotherapy (RT) remains a major treatment approach in histologically proven, rapidly progressive disease. Despite several publications, recent data concerning symptom relief and oncological outcome as well as potential confounders in treatment response are still scarce. Methods We performed a retrospective single-center analysis of patients receiving urgent RT between 2000 and 2021 at the University Medical Center Göttingen. Symptom relief was evaluated by CTCAE score during the RT course. Effects of variables on symptom relief were assessed by logistic regression. The impact of parameters on overall survival (OS) was evaluated using Kaplan–Meier plot along with the log-rank test and by Cox regression analyses. Statistically significant ( p -value 2 years). Applied RT dose > 39 Gy, clinical target volume (CTV) size