Researchers Call for More Aggressive Therapy for Advanced Lung Cancer

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iStock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) — Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have found that aggressive therapy may triple the time to progression in lung cancer which has metastasized.

Traditionally, when lung cancer has spread to other sites outside of the lung, it is considered incurable, and treated with chemotherapy only. This phase II study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting found that the use of radiation and/or surgery to treat those areas of lung cancer outside of the lung significantly improved outcomes.

The cancer was improved or stable for 11.9 months in the group that received radiation or surgery vs. 3.9 months in the group that received traditional chemotherapy alone.

While the study was relatively small using only 49 patients, it was discontinued early because of the magnitude of benefit seen and larger follow up studies are being designed.

Aggressive therapy has traditionally not been pursued due to their advanced disease, but this study shows impressive data supporting local therapy with radiation and surgery.

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Stroke 101

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