MORE radiation lifts lung cancer survival rate -U.S study

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@earthlink.net>]

Thursday January 28, 1:40 am Eastern Time

BOSTON, Jan. 27 (Reuters) - Twice-daily radiation treatments 
increase the chance of survival of lung cancer patients compared to 
those who receive once-a-day treatment, a report in Thursday's 
New England Journal of Medicine found.  

The study, conducted at nine U.S. medical centers, involved 417 
patients with small-cell lung cancer confined to one side of the 
chest, a location that made the tumors more vulnerable to radiation 
therapy, researchers said.  

About 34,000 small-cell lung tumors are diagnosed in the United 
States each year.  

All the volunteers received standard treatment with the drugs 
cisplatin and etoposide, researchers said. Half were given once-a-
day radiation treatments for five weeks, while the rest were given 
twice-daily radiation treatments for three weeks, researchers said.  

After five years, 16 percent of the people who received once-a-day 
doses were alive, compared with 26 percent whose radiation 
treatments were given twice a day, researchers said.  

The research team, led by Dr. Andrew Turrisi of the Medical 
University of South Carolina in Charleston, said the twice-daily 
radiation regimen produces ``a considerable improvement in survival 
rates over previous results in patients with limited small-cell  
lung cancer.''

Sandy Perle
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 
Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/1205

"The object of opening the mind, as of opening 
the mouth, is to close it again on something solid"
              - G. K. Chesterton -
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