Posted on 05/12/2023 5:44:17 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
More patients are choosing radiation therapy over surgery to treat their early-stage lung cancer, but a new study argues they might be making a mistake.
People who are good surgical candidates for lung cancer appear to have a five-year survival rate that's 15 percentage points lower if they opt to have radiation treatment instead, according to findings.
Said Dr. Brooks Udelsman: "If you have a patient who is expected to live more than two years, they're probably going to benefit from the surgery."
The data included about 24,700 patients whose tumors were surgically removed and nearly 6,000 who underwent targeted stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). SBRT targets small tumors with large radiation doses without damaging healthy tissue and organs nearby.
The percentage of early-stage lung cancer patients who receive targeted radiation therapy instead of surgery amounted to 26% in 2018, up from 16% in 2012, Udelsman said.
Both options are equally good in terms of short-term survival, the new data showed. Three months after treatment, about 97% of surgical patients are still alive compared with 98% of radiation therapy patients.
But the overall five-year survival rates between the two groups are very different, according to the new study—71% for people treated with surgery versus 42% for those who received radiation.
The researchers tightened their focus to 528 patients who were healthy enough to be offered surgery and specifically refused it, instead going with radiation therapy.
Those patients also had a lower five-year survival rate compared to those who got surgery, 56% versus 71%.
Surgery's survival advantage over radiation therapy persisted regardless of the type of procedure, researchers found—73% for removal of an entire lobe of the lung; 72% for removing part of a lobe; and 62% for removing a small, wedge-shaped piece of lung tissue—compared to 42% for radiation treatment.
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
MIL, age 93, now 95, underwent radiation for early cancer 2 years ago. Right by her esophagus so no surgery. She’s fine now, and at this point, I don’t think we will allow her to get more if it were to come back. But I’m not a blood relative and have no say in the matter.
“Do the surgery, if possible.”
Agreed. This is true for cancers in general. I’ve learned this the hard way with family experience. Radiotherapies can be stunningly effective at killing cancer cells, but the problem is that the radiation almost inevitably damages healthy tissues, too. And therein lies the rub.
In my case, they recommended a lobectomy over radiation. It’s been 6 years. Still kicking.
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