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IMRT Has Lesser Side Effects, Better Tolerance Than Standard Lung Cancer Therapy

by Dr. Trupti Shirole on Oct 19 2015 9:23 AM

 IMRT Has Lesser Side Effects, Better Tolerance Than Standard Lung Cancer Therapy
The American Cancer Society suggests that in the United States, 221,200 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015 and 158,040 will die from the disease, making it the deadliest of all cancers. A new research for lung cancer patients has revealed that intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) has lesser side effects (lung toxicity) and were able to better tolerate their chemotherapy than conventional radiation therapy.
Lead author Stephen Chun of The University of Texas said, "About a third of all lung cancers are diagnosed when the cancer is locally advanced. The standard of care for locally advanced lung cancer is concurrent chemotherapy and radiation, with most patients receiving either 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3-D CRT) or IMRT. For decades, 3-D CRT has been the standard of care for the treatment of lung cancer. The technique shapes radiation beams aimed in straight lines to match the shape of the tumor. In contrast, IMRT is a newer, more-advanced technique that sculpts and molds radiation beams to tumor targets, using substantially more complex radiation beam arrangements than 3D-CRT. In turn, IMRT can spare more normal tissue than 3D-CRT with high doses of radiation."

Chun further added, "IMRT was developed more than a decade ago and because it has been shown to reduce toxicity, it has been accepted to treat prostate, brain, and head & neck cancers. This is the first analysis of a prospective clinical trial to show a reduction of toxicity associated with IMRT in locally advanced lung cancer and could lead to a major change in the way radiation therapy is delivered for the disease."

The study has been presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology's 57th Annual Meeting.

Source-ANI


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