Delays In Starting Radiotherapy Can Increase Risk Of Cancer Recurrence

In both breast and head and neck cancers the risk of local recurrence increases with longer radiotherapy waiting times, finds a Canadian meta-analysis. The study, published in Radiotherapy and Oncology, concludes that delays in radiotherapy treatment should be kept to the minimum time possible.

Waiting times for radiotherapy were first identified as cause for concern around 20 years ago. Treatment delays can be attributed to increasing demands for radiotherapy caused by the growing incidence of cancer due to an ageing population and the discovery and adoption of new indications for radiotherapy. "When the increasing demand is not matched by a commensurate increase in treatment capacity, waiting lists for RT become inevitable," write the authors Zheng Chen and colleagues, from Queen's Cancer Research Institute ( Kingston, Ontario, Canada) and Cross Cancer Institute ( Edmonton, Alta, Canada).

source: Cancer Media Service