Tag Archives: sbrt

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Plus Chemotherapy Improves Survival Among Stage 4 Lung Cancer Patients

The combination of the chemotherapy regimen, erlotinib, with stereotactic body radiation therapy, known as SBRT, improved overall survival time to 20 months compared to historic 6- to 9- month survival times among erlotinib-only treated patients. The combination improved progression free survival – the time without the reappearance of cancer − from the historical two to four months to 14.7 months for similarly selected lung cancer patients. …

Interstitial lung disease is significant risk factor for lung inflammation

ILD is a group of diseases that cause scarring and stiffing of the tissue and space around the air sacs in the lungs, which results in diminished gas exchange. The incidence of ILD among lung cancer patients is higher than in the general population as tobacco smoking is a common risk factor for both. Some lung cancer patients with ILD may not be considered good candidates for surgical therapy. …

Patients with inoperable, early-stage lung cancer who receive stereotactic body radiation therapy have 40% five-year survival rate

RTOG 0236 was a Phase II North American multicenter trial from May 2004 until October 2006 of patients age 18 and older with biopsy-proven peripheral T1-T2 N0M0 non-small cell lung cancer (early stage with no lymph node involvement or metastases). Patients in the study all had medical conditions that precluded them from surgery, so they received SBRT, a specialized type of external beam therapy that uses focused radiation beams at a tumor using detailed imaging…