Combined Treatment of Lung Cancer, Extends Life Expectancy of Patients
July 27, 2006 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
For lung cancer, the standard treatment is surgery. BUT, only one-third of patients with early stage lung cancer qualify for surgery because of other underlying medical conditions.
And so, radiation therapy has long been used on inoperable lung cancer.
More recently, doctors have been using radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and microwave ablation: these processes heat tumors to destroy them.
Those patients that cannot have surgery or radiation have a median survival of about one year. According to researchers at Rhode Island Hospital, by combining thermal ablation with radiation therapy will extend the average life expectancy and decrease recurrences of tumors in patients who have early stages of inoperable lung cancer.
“This study shows us that even patients who are not eligible for surgery can still get very good results,” says senior author Damian Dupuy, MD, director of ultrasound at Rhode Island Hospital and professor of diagnostic imaging at Brown Medical School, both in Providence, RI. “By combining thermal ablation and radiation, you have a better chance of survival than with either treatment alone.”
The results are published in the July issue of the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.
Read more at Science Daily.
Photo Credit: Tobacco Facts
