Posts by tag
radiotherapy
Surgery or radiotherapy? How the pandemic provide an opening to gather the evidence that patients need
Head-to-head comparisons of the effectiveness of radiotherapy and surgery are not often – or easily – performed. Yet, for some types and stages of cancer, there is an increasingly apparent need for hard evidence about their comparative risks and benefits…
Ultra-high dose rate radiation: is FLASH the future?
Radiation that kills only tumour cells and spares healthy tissue? It sounds too good to be true. But if the promise of recent research is fulfilled, the FLASH technique of ultra high dose-rate delivery could present the greatest transformation of…
AI-generated radiotherapy planning could boost access to high-quality treatment across the globe
Can artificial intelligence help design radiotherapy treatment plans, reducing time and cost while matching the quality of skilled professionals? That is the question that a new multi-centre and multi-arm ARCHERY study is trying to answer. The global study, still at…
Localised prostate cancer: active monitoring offers valid option
Active monitoring of localised prostate cancer has the same high rates of survival after 15 years as radiotherapy or surgery. The ProtecT trial, presented at the European Association of Urology (EAU) meeting in Milan, March 10–13, and published simultaneously in…
Radiotherapy can be safely omitted in older women with low-risk breast cancer
Leaving out radiotherapy does not affect survival after breast-conserving surgery in older women with low-risk hormone-receptor-positive early breast cancer. Ten-year outcomes for the PRIME II trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, February 16, found that, although omission…
Radiotherapy benefits survival in patients with asymptomatic metastases
Treating high-risk, asymptomatic bone metastases with prophylactic radiation therapy reduces painful complications and extends overall survival. The study, abstract LBA 04, presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting, held October 23–26, 2022, in San Diego, California,…
Chemobrain: it’s real, it’s troublesome and it deserves more attention
Fiona Henderson was part way through her psychology degree when she received her breast cancer diagnosis. Right after treatments finished, she returned to her studies – initially without a problem. “Three or four months later, I really struggled. I was…
Study challenges dogma that RCC is biologically radioresistant
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) represents a safe and effective non-invasive treatment for oligometastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The study, published in Lancet Oncology, supports sequential radiotherapy as an alternative treatment option to systemic therapy for oligometastatic renal cell carcinoma.…
Rapid palliation of bone mets: it’s effective and easy, so why aren’t we all doing it?
Bone metastases occur in around 7 out of every 10 people with advanced cancer, and are most frequently found in people with breast, prostate, lung or kidney cancers, and in most people with advanced multiple myeloma. They cause pain and…