Improved technology is boosting the benefit to patients, study suggests
WEDNESDAY, June 14 (HealthDay News) -- Radiation therapy after surgery may need to be reconsidered as a treatment option for certain types of lung cancer, a new study suggests.
Following surgery with radiation therapy may prolong survival rates, concludes a study that analyzed data on 7,000 lung cancer patients from the U.S. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Database (SEER).
The study, reported in the current Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that the five-year survival rate for certain lung cancer patients treated with surgery and radiation therapy was 7 percent higher than patients treated only with surgery -- a 27 percent survival rate compared to just 20 percent.
"Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in this country and even with the best therapy, survival is poor; so an increase of this level can be considered significant," study author Dr. Brian Lally, a radiation oncologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.
Although the surgery-plus-radiation combo had been a standard treatment in the past, studies repeatedly showed a decrease in survival rates linked to the radiation therapy. The current standard treatment typically includes surgery followed by chemotherapy. Less than one-third of lung cancer patients receive radiation treatment today.
However, improvements in radiation technology may mean more effective results from the therapy, Lally said.
"Post-operative radiation therapy has failed to demonstrate a survival benefit in the past, likely because previous studies used older equipment," he said. "Our study, which examines the results using modern equipment, shows survival benefit in select patients."
The patients who received the most survival benefit from the radiation therapy were those whose cancer had spread to the lymph nodes.
"For the patients who received surgery and radiation therapy, their survival was better than patients who received surgery alone," said Lally.
Lally noted that the data studied did not include details on some factors that may have had an impact on the findings, such as any microscopic disease that may have developed as a result of the surgery. Additional studies are needed to understand radiation therapy as treatment, according to Lally.
SOURCES: Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, news release, June 12, 2006
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