According to Australian researchers, low-dose radiation meant only for pain relief can help some patients with outwardly untreatable advanced lung cancer beat the odds.
The scientists examined 2,337 patients who received palliative radiation for advanced cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), that is the most common type of the disease. The researchers report that such advanced cases are usually regarded to be “incurable,” with “dismal” odds of survival.
According to Australian researchers, low-dose radiation meant only for pain relief can help some patients with outwardly untreatable advanced lung cancer beat the odds.
The scientists examined 2,337 patients who received palliative radiation for advanced cases of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), that is the most common type of the disease. The researchers report that such advanced cases are usually regarded to be “incurable,” with “dismal” odds of survival.
In the journal Cancer, they stated that after treatment 1.1 percent of the patients lived at least five or more years.
Dr. Michael Mac Manus, an associate professor in the department of Radiation Oncology at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in East Melbourne stated: “About one in every hundred patients with non-small cell lung cancer appear to have disease that is remarkably sensitive to treatment with radiotherapy. Some of these patients seem actually to have been cured by a therapy usually considered to have no curative potential whatsoever.”
“If we could understand why some patients can apparently be cured by non-aggressive therapies, we might be able to develop treatments that could benefit all lung cancer patients.” - Dr. Michael Mac Manus claims.
NSCLC shows an average five-year survival factor of only 40 percent. The five-year survival factor in advanced disease is diminished to only about 15 percent.
Patients ill with NSCLC that is too advanced to be cured can receive palliative therapies to mitigate pain and discomfort, including radiation.
Lung cancer is definitely the biggest cancer killer in the world. Every single year it is diagnosed in ten million people. Half of all patients die within a year of diagnosis.
