Tag Archives: radiation-oncology

Ovarian cancer patients may benefit from pelvic radiotherapy

“Despite the intense therapeutic and surgical regimen typically used to treat ovarian cancer, outcomes remain poor,” said William Small Jr., MD, chair, Department of Radiation Oncology, LUHS. “This study provided encouraging preliminary results for the use of RT in women with ovarian cancer.” The study evaluated 56 patients with ovarian clear cell adenocarcinoma (CCA), an aggressive form of ovarian cancer that is more likely to be resistant to chemotherapy and to have a poorer prognosis than other forms of this disease. …

Study adds to cancer-fighting promise of combined immunotherapy-radiation treatment

The study, led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers, shows how in principle, radiation may specifically activate immune system cells responsible for attacking cancer cells, leading immune cells to “remember” how to fight cancer long after the cancer is gone. Andrew Sharabi, M.D., Ph.D., a resident in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Science at Johns Hopkins, is expected to present details of the study at the 2014 annual meeting of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Francisco Sept. 15…

Focus on treatment costs, value: Less radiation for elderly women with early breast cancer — ScienceDaily

The study, using a national database of more than 100,000 women treated during the last decade, found that today nationally radiation oncologists are less likely to use radiotherapy in women older than 70 with early-stage estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer and that when they do, treatment is appropriately less-intensive. This follows a randomized trial demonstrating low rates of recurrence in women who don’t receive radiotherapy after lumpectomy, provided they take endocrine therapy. This confirms radiation oncologists are responding to a growing impetus to keep medical practices current and cost-effective, said first author Charles Rutter, M.D., a radiation oncology resident in Yale’s School of Medicine. …

Study identifies when and how much various prostate cancer treatments will impact urinary and sexual functioning — ScienceDaily

Looking over data gathered from more than 17,000 surveys completed by men diagnosed with prostate cancer, Fox Chase researchers tracked when patients’ urinary and sexual symptoms changed following each type of treatment, and by how much. “The ultimate goal,” says study author Matthew Johnson, MD, Resident Physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Fox Chase, “is to develop a predictive tool that lets patients decide which treatment is right for them based on the symptoms they have beforehand, and their tolerance for any change — even temporary — in those symptoms.” After a diagnosis of prostate cancer, men have multiple treatment options, including surgery to remove the prostate and several types of radiation therapy…

Study identifies when and how much various prostate cancer treatments will impact urinary and sexual functioning

Looking over data gathered from more than 17,000 surveys completed by men diagnosed with prostate cancer, Fox Chase researchers tracked when patients’ urinary and sexual symptoms changed following each type of treatment, and by how much. “The ultimate goal,” says study author Matthew Johnson, MD, Resident Physician in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Fox Chase, “is to develop a predictive tool that lets patients decide which treatment is right for them based on the symptoms they have beforehand, and their tolerance for any change — even temporary — in those symptoms.” After a diagnosis of prostate cancer, men have multiple treatment options, including surgery to remove the prostate and several types of radiation therapy. They can receive external beam radiation directed towards their prostate, known as intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), or undergo a procedure that implants radioactive seeds in their prostate called low dose rate brachytherapy (LDR). …

Five radiation oncology treatments to question — ScienceDaily

• Don’t recommend radiation following hysterectomy for endometrial cancer patients with low-risk disease. Patients with low-risk endometrial cancer, including no residual disease in hysterectomy despite positive biopsy, grade 1 or 2 with <50 percent myometrial invasion and no additional high-risk features such as age >60, lymphovascular space invasion or cervical involvement have a very low risk of recurrence following surgery. …

Five radiation oncology treatments to question

• Don’t recommend radiation following hysterectomy for endometrial cancer patients with low-risk disease. Patients with low-risk endometrial cancer, including no residual disease in hysterectomy despite positive biopsy, grade 1 or 2 with <50 percent myometrial invasion and no additional high-risk features such as age >60, lymphovascular space invasion or cervical involvement have a very low risk of recurrence following surgery. Meta-analysis studies of radiation therapy for low-risk endometrial cancer demonstrate increased side effects with no benefit in overall survival compared with surgery alone. • Don’t routinely offer radiation therapy for patients who have resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), negative margins, N0-1 disease…

When more medicine isn’t always better: High costs of unnecessary radiation for terminal cancer patients

"Increased use of single fraction treatment would achieve the Holy Grail of health reform, which is real improvements in patient care at substantial cost savings," said the new study’s lead author, Justin E. Bekelman, MD, an assistant professor of Radiation Oncology in Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center…