Stereotactic radiotherapy offers noninvasive, effective treatment for frail patients with early-stage lung cancer

DALLAS — Nov. 2, 2009 — Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) should be considered a new standard of care for early-stage lung cancer treatment in patients with co-existing medical problems, according to results from a national clinical trial led by UT Southwestern Medical Center physicians.

In this study, 55 patients diagnosed with early non-small-cell lung (NSCL) cancer and unable to have their tumors surgically removed because of unrelated medical comorbidities were treated with SBRT during three noninvasive outpatient treatments.

The most recent findings, presented today in Chicago at the 51st annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, show that the primary lung cancer did not recur 98 percent of the time. Despite their extreme frailty, more than half of these patients — 56 percent — were alive three years after diagnosis, while less than 20 percent ultimately died of metastatic lung cancer.

“These findings have changed the standard of care for lung cancer in patients with serious medical problems like emphysema, heart disease and strokes,” said Dr. Robert Timmerman, vice chairman of radiation oncology at UT Southwestern and principal investigator of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) 0236 study.

source: Southwestern Medical Center