Serious side effects were reduced when research radiologists used a special technique to target the most radiation on anal cancer tumors, while sparing nearby normal tissue.

Reported at the recent 2011 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) did not reduce overall side effects during chemotherapy and radiation treatment, but it did cut down on the most serious bladder, bowel, and skin problems.

At the same time, IMRT was a good as traditional external beam radiation in preventing local recurrences and the need for colostomies.  Survival after two years was also similar to a previous study that did not use the technique. Read the rest of this entry »

Cancer patients with only a few tumors that have spread to other parts of their bodies (metastases) will be part of a clinical trial to test precisely focused, high-dose radiation treatment called helical tomotherapy.

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center want to know if helical tomography, focused on metastatic tumors, can destroy them and keep them from returning in patients whose tumors cannot be removed surgically or who are not willing to have surgery.

The trial is being conducted by the National Cancer Institute on the NIH Clinical Center campus in Bethesda, MD. Read the rest of this entry »

An early clinical trial of focused radiation therapy for liver metastases appeared to be safe without causing liver disease.

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) delivers high doses of radiation to a carefully targeted area of the body.  Its goal is to destroy cancer cells while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

Radiation oncologists at Princesss Margaret Hospital at the University of Toronto used SBRT to treat 68 patients with cancer that had spread to their liver, 40 of whom had colorectal cancer.  Patients, who were not eligible for surgery or additional chemotherapy, had six radiotherapy treatments over two weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Patients whose tumors shrink in response to radiation therapy before surgery for rectal cancer have both improved overall survival and improved disease-free survival.  However, even patients who responded to presurgical radiation did not reach survival rates for stage I rectal cancer patients treated with surgery alone. Read the rest of this entry »

2008 ASTRO Annual Meeting

Patients whose cancers have spread to the brain experience more learning and memory problems when radiation to their whole brain follows more targeted radiotherapy.

Study results presented at the 2008 American Society for Radiation Therapy and Oncology annual meeting in Boston found that whole brain radiation after radiosurgery doubled the risk of cognitive problems. Read the rest of this entry »