When lung cancer is caught in the early stages, surgery offers the chance for a cure. But not everyone is a candidate for surgery. And for those people - whether they forego treatment or are treated with conventional radiation therapy - the survival rate at 3 years is only around 20 to 35%.
But a relatively new technique in radiation therapy, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), provides hope that people with early-stage but inoperable lung cancer will be able to survive significantly longer than was possible in the past.
Researchers evaluated 55 people with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer who could not have their tumors removed with surgery for medical reasons. They defined early stage lung cancer as tumors that were less than 5 cm (2 ½ inches) in diameter, and had not spread to any nodes or distant regions of the body (metastasized). Medical reasons that made their cancers inoperable included heart disease, or other lung diseases, such as emphysema, that would make surgery too dangerous.
Following treatment with SBRT, more than 50% of people were still alive after 3 years, and many of these people showed no evidence of their original cancer (no recurrence).
SBRT differs from conventional radiation therapy in a few ways. The procedure uses special positioning and radiology techniques to deliver radiation to a very precise area, sparing normal tissue so that a higher dose of radiation can be used. It is also used for a shorter period of time, in this study 1 ½ to 2 weeks, rather than the typical 5 to 6 week course.
Moderate side effects (what radiation oncologists classify as grade 3 or grade 4 on a scale of a scale of 1 to 5), occurred in less than 20% of people.
Last year, another study found treatment with SBRT to double survival for individuals with stage 1 lung cancer who were considered inoperable, or chose to forego surgery, over those who did not receive any treatment. As a next step, researchers are studying whether SBRT has any advantages over surgery for patients who are currently healthy enough to undergo surgery for lung cancer.
Further Reading:
- Inoperable Lung Cancer - What Does Inoperable Mean?
- Radiation Therapy Side Effects
- Coping With Side Effects from Radiation Therapy
Photo: National Cancer Institute, Michael Anderson (photographer)
Source:
Timmerman, M. et al. Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for Inoperable Early Stage Lung Cancer Journal of the American Medical Association. 2010. 303(11):1070-1076.
