• HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
Sunday, January 24, 2021
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • NEWS
    • BIOENGINEERING
    • SCIENCE NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • FORUM
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • CONTACT US
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Cancer

Widespread adoption of SBRT has improved survival rates for elderly patients with early stage lung cancer

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 26, 2016
in Cancer
1
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Survival rates for elderly patients who received stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) for early stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) rose from roughly 40 to 60 percent over the past decade, concurrent with the increasing adoption of SBRT, according to research presented today at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

Andrew M. Farach, MD, a radiation oncologist at Houston Methodist Hospital
Andrew M. Farach, MD, a radiation oncologist at Houston Methodist Hospital

In recent years, SBRT has become the standard of care for patients with inoperable early stage NSCLC. Compared to the conventional radiation therapy (RT) approach of small doses given daily over several weeks, SBRT delivers a highly targeted, escalated dose of radiation in a single session or as many as five of treatments, usually between one and five fractions. Widespread adoption of SBRT in community-based practices has increased its use as the primary definitive treatment for elderly patients, who often have multiple medical problems that limit surgical options.

For this study, researchers examined records from the nation’s largest cancer patient database to determine how rates of overall and disease-specific survival have changed as use of SBRT has increased, as well as to draw population-based comparisons between SBRT and surgery alone for elderly patients.

Records for the 62,213 patients age 60 and above who were diagnosed with stage I NSCLC between 2004 and 2012 were extracted from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients with squamous, adenocarcinoma and adenosquamous histologies and those with definite records defining local therapy were eligible for inclusion.

Overall survival (OS) and lung cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates were calculated for patients grouped into five-year subsets (i.e., 60-64, 65-69, 70-74, 75-79, 80-84, 85-89, and 90 and older). Researchers analyzed OS and CSS change over time based on type of therapy and age using Kaplan-Meier, logarithmic ranking and Cox multivariate hazard ratio (HR) methods as well as comparative analysis with Fisher test.

Over the study period, survival rates for SBRT rose dramatically among this large, nationally-representative population of elderly stage I NSCLC patients. From 2004 to 2012 — the years in which adoption of SBRT in community practice became widespread — the overall survival rate at 23 months following SBRT alone rose nearly 20 percentage points, from 39 to 58 percent (p < 0.001). OS rates for surgery alone rose five percentage points, from 79 to 84 percent (p < 0.001). There was no improvement for patients who received neither RT nor surgery (from 28 to 33 percent, p = 0.29).

In the same time period, CSS increased from 48 to 72 percent of patients who received SBRT alone (p < 0.001) and from 87 to 91 percent of patients receiving surgery alone (p < 0.001). CSS rates remained stable for patients who received neither surgery nor radiation, although the difference approached statistical significance (38 to 45 percent, p = 0.06).

“Our findings indicate that physicians should feel confident recommending radiation therapy to patients who are too sick to undergo surgery or who choose not to undergo surgery for other reasons,” said Andrew M. Farach, MD, a radiation oncologist at Houston Methodist Hospital and lead author on the study. “With continued adoption of SBRT in community cancer centers, it is our hope that more patients will receive curative SBRT and the number of patients left untreated based on age or medical comorbidity will continue to fall.”

The use of surgery to treat stage I NSCLC declined with age (p < 0.001). While 81 percent of patients age 60-64 underwent surgery, only 47 percent of patients age 80 or older were able to undergo surgery. The use of RT, conversely, rose with increasing age, ranging from 11 percent of patients age 60-64 to 39 percent of patients age 90 or above (p < 0.001). The number of patient receiving no treatment also increased from 7 to 40 percent for the youngest and oldest elderly patient cohorts in the study.

Despite improvements in OS and CSS, survival rates following RT remained lower than those for elderly patients who received surgery. Researchers explained that this difference may be due, in part, to a selection bias where healthier patients were treated with surgery, and they underscored the need for a controlled clinical trial with matched patients receiving each treatment first-line to compare the efficacy of these therapies. Instances of palliative SBRT or conventional RT also may have skewed results in favor of surgical outcomes.

“While survival rates remain highest for surgical candidates, this study demonstrates both clear benefits from SBRT for nonsurgical NSCLC patients and that outcomes following radiation therapy have improved at a more accelerated pace over the past decade than those for any other therapeutic approach,” said Dr. Farach. “With increased access to this potentially life-saving treatment, we can continue to improve outcomes for the growing population of elderly patients fighting early stage cancer.”

Web Source: American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

The post Widespread adoption of SBRT has improved survival rates for elderly patients with early stage lung cancer appeared first on Scienmag.

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

IMAGE

University of Cincinnati research unveils possible new combo therapy for head and neck cancer

January 22, 2021
IMAGE

CT identifies patients with high-risk nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

January 22, 2021

New combination of immunotherapies shows great promise for treating lung cancer

January 22, 2021

Catching cancer in the act

January 21, 2021
Next Post
blank

Young cancer survivors in economic struggle

blank

Why belly fat is dangerous for the heart

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POPULAR NEWS

  • IMAGE

    The map of nuclear deformation takes the form of a mountain landscape

    54 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14
  • People living with HIV face premature heart disease and barriers to care

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16
  • New drug form may help treat osteoporosis, calcium-related disorders

    40 shares
    Share 16 Tweet 10
  • New findings help explain how COVID-19 overpowers the immune system

    35 shares
    Share 14 Tweet 9

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Tags

Technology/Engineering/Computer ScienceBiologyClimate ChangePublic HealthMaterialsInfectious/Emerging DiseasesMedicine/HealthcancerGeneticsCell BiologyEcology/EnvironmentChemistry/Physics/Materials Sciences

Recent Posts

  • Regulating the ribosomal RNA production line
  • A professor from RUDN University developed new liquid crystals
  • New technique builds super-hard metals from nanoparticles
  • No more needles for diagnostic tests?
  • Contact Us

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

© 2019 Bioengineer.org - Biotechnology news by Science Magazine - Scienmag.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In