People who undergo radiotherapy for their bowel cancer can live well without the therapy and rely on surgery and chemotherapy to treat their disease, a new study revealed on Sunday.
Radiotherapy has several side effects, such as infertility, the need for a temporary colostomy, diarrhea, cramping, and bladder problems as it has been used to treat.
The study was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, and the results were published concurrently. New England Journal of Medicine And Journal of Clinical Oncology.
ASCO declared in a briefing paper that “Omission of radiation therapy can reduce short- and long-term side-effects that affect quality of life and provide similar outcomes in disease-free survival and overall survival.”
The study was conducted on 1,194 patients with rectal cancer in New York.
“They were randomly divided into two groups; one received treatment with surgery followed by radiation and then, at their doctor’s discretion, chemotherapy; the other received experimental treatment, in which participants were given chemotherapy first, then surgery. At their doctor’s discretion, another round of chemotherapy may be given.”
The results suggested that radiotherapy did not improve the outcome and after 18 months, no difference was observed in the quality of life between the two groups. Moreover, the same persisted among them.
Toxic therapy
Dr. Pamela Kunz, an ASCO expert who was not involved in the study, said: “We have reached a tipping point. As we develop new therapies, we are also exploring where we can eliminate toxic therapies for the well-being of our patients.
“The results of this study allow us to do just that, showing that we can eliminate radiation therapy for some patients, improving quality of life without compromising efficacy.”
Over eight years, the trials will monitor participants to collect additional data on survival, recurrence and other endpoints.
“It really is a case of less being more. The study shows that we can protect selected patients from receiving radiation. This improves quality of life and reduces side effects, including things like early menopause and infertility. This trial is practice-changing,” Kunz noted.
Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK’s chief physician, said doctors around the world were increasingly trying to find ways to reduce exposure to drugs or radiation to limit patients’ long-term side effects.
“Pelvic radiotherapy is associated with major long-term side effects. I think avoiding radiation is a big step,” adding the study was “pretty difficult.”
“Based on that, I think you can say that you can safely avoid radiotherapy for many patients with this disease. I think that’s definitely an advance.”
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