According to a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco), thousands of bowel cancer patients could be treated with chemotherapy and surgery alone, without the need for radiotherapy. Radiotherapy has been used to treat bowel cancer patients for decades, but the side-effects can be brutal. It can cause problems that negatively affect quality of life, including infertility, the need for a temporary colostomy, diarrhoea, cramping and bladder problems. The research was conducted by doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who randomly assigned 1,194 patients with rectal cancer to one of two groups. One group received the standard treatment, radiation followed by surgery, and then, after the patients recovered from surgery, chemotherapy at their doctor’s discretion. The other group received the experimental treatment, which consisted of chemotherapy first, followed by surgery. At their doctor’s discretion, another round of chemotherapy could be given. Radiotherapy did not improve outcomes, the study found. After 18 months, there was no difference between the two groups in quality of life, and after five years, there was no difference in survival between them.
The study represents an exciting emerging area of cancer research. Experts are increasingly starting to focus efforts on trying to find elements of treatments that can be eliminated to provide patients with a better quality of life. “We’ve reached a tipping point,” said Dr Pamela Kunz, an Asco expert who was not involved with the study. “As we develop new therapies, we are also exploring where we can eliminate toxic therapies for our patients’ wellbeing. The findings of this study allow us to do just that, showing we can omit radiation therapy for some patients, improving quality of life without compromising efficacy.”
The trial will continue to follow the participants and collect additional data on disease-free survival, overall survival, local recurrence-free survival and other secondary endpoints for eight years.
“This is really a case of less is more,” said Kunz. “The study shows that we can spare select patients from receiving radiation. This leads to improved quality of life and reduced side-effects including things…
2023-06-04 12:55:57
Original from www.theguardian.com
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