Radiotherapy in the brain: Better treatment for lung cancer

According to Dutch experts' research, prophylactic radiation therapy for the brain not only significantly reduces the risk of lung cancer spreading to the brain, but also helps prolong the patient's life.

Professor Ben Slotman, Chairman of the Department of Oncology of Radiation at the Medical Center at VU University, Amsterdam, and colleagues conducted this study for 286 patients with progressive small cell lung cancer. treated with chemotherapy (chemotherapy). According to Professor Slotman, this is a form of cancer that doctors are difficult to predict and not easy to use surgery to remove the cancer. Opportunity to prolong life doubled.

These patients are divided into two equal groups: one that applies preventive radiation therapy - also called preventive radiation therapy - to the brain, and the other group (control group). ) do not use this therapy.

Lung cancer patients with prophylactic radiotherapy in the brain have the ability to prolong life and reduce the risk of cancer spreading to the brain.(Photo: UT Medical Center)

Radiation therapy is done on the brain every day for 1 to 2 weeks with the same doses as for patients with brain cancer.

The results showed that only 14.6% of the treated group had brain cancer 1 year later, while in the control group, this rate was up to 40.4%.

In terms of life extension, 27.1% of radiotherapy patients continued to live after 1 year, while in the control group this rate was only 13.3%.

During the study, about 30% of radiotherapy patients experienced side effects such as nausea, vomiting and headaches, but Professor Slotman said these symptoms were mild. The results of this study were published on June 4, 2007 at the 43rd annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. At the conference, Slotman said that prophylactic radiation therapy for the brain not only works to prevent cancer from spreading from the lungs to the brain, but also helps prolong the life of cancer patients.

He said: 'Metastatic cancer in the brain is a common condition during the treatment of lung cancer. When cancer has spread to the brain, it can cause very dangerous complications, such as stroke, brain hemorrhage, etc. '.

At the conference, he suggested: 'Based on these findings, prophylactic radiation therapy for the brain should be applied regularly to patients with small cell lung cancer.' According to him, the disease now accounts for 15% - about 32,000 cases - of the total number of lung cancer cases in the United States.

A very significant progress

According to experts, this is the first study to show that prophylactic radiotherapy for the brain has the potential to prolong the life of patients with cancer at metastatic stage. This result may encourage doctors to test radiation therapy for patients with advanced breast cancer as well as other forms of lung cancer.

Extending life for cancer patients is an extraordinary thing that the world medicine is constantly researching to advance.(Photo: Detnews.com)

Mr. Allen Lichter, Director of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, said: 'The results show that patients with prophylactic brain radiation have twice as long chances of life than those who are not applied. This therapy '. According to him , 'this is very significant for cancer patients'.

Meanwhile, excited by the results of the study, Professor Slotman said: 'I think we can move on to immediate clinical treatment.'

In a report on this study, he wrote: 'In the past two decades, there has been little improvement in the field of small cell lung cancer treatment, so new findings in this study. is a very significant progress'.

Although not involved in this study, Dr. Roy Herbst, of MD Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas, said: 'Prolonging life is an extraordinary thing. We cannot cure the patient, but we can help patients live for a while with a better quality of life. ' According to him , 'this is a therapy that should be applied immediately'. He also said that most cancer treatment centers in the US are capable of using this therapy.

- Lung cancer is divided into two main types: small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, depending on the shape of the cell under the microscope.Each type of cancer develops and spreads in different ways and is treated differently.

- Non-small cell lung cancer is more common than small cell lung cancer (about 80%) and it usually develops and develops more slowly.There are three major types of non-small cell cancers.They are named after the type of cell from which the cancer develops: squamous cell carcinoma (also called epidermal cancer), adenocarcinoma and large cell carcinoma.

Quang Thinh

According to Reuters, Scientific American, Intenational Herald Tribune, Wikipedia, VNN