New lung cancer radiation therapy created

PHILADELPHIA, March 9 (UPI) -- U.S. radiologists say they have developed a new lung cancer treatment that avoids conventional radiation regimens or surgical procedures.

Temple University Professor Curtis Miyamoto, who led the research, said the technique -- stereotactic body radiotherapy -- improves the odds of surviving early stage lung cancer.

"With the success of this technique, we're now questioning whether we'll even be doing surgeries on these patients in the future," Miyamoto said.

Unlike conventional radiation therapy for lung cancer that can involve therapy five days a week for six or seven weeks, the SBRT treatment requires only three to eight treatments.

For those who undergo SBRT, the median survival range is more than 32 months and, depending on the size and seriousness of the tumor, the two-year disease free survival, or cure rate through SBRT increases to approximately 81 percent and can reach up to 98 percent, the scientists said. The cure rate with conventional radiation is closer to 35 percent, with SBRT doubling the odds of surviving early stage lung cancer, and actually curing at least half of patients.

The findings appeared in the International Journal of Radiation OncologyBiologyPhysics and will be presented this June in Cancun, Mexico, during the annual meeting of the Latin American Association of Radiating Therapy Oncology.