Radiation May Perform Better Than Surgery For Late Stage Lung Cancer

Radiation May Perform Better Than Surgery For Late Stage Lung Cancer
By Tim Edwards

A new European study found that after the initial treatment for chemotherapy, radiation treatment may be a better solution than surgery for patients suffering from advanced non-small cell lung cancer. Non-small lung cancer accounts for about 80 percent of all lung cancer cases reported.

The new study was reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, examined 579 patients suffering from late stage, non-small lung cancer that had advanced to the point where surgery could not effectively remove all of the cancer. All of the patients had received three cycles of chemotherapy.

After chemo, 165 received radiation treatment and 167 received surgery for the remaining cancer. On average, the patients receiving the radiation survived 17.5 months compared to 16.4 months for those who received the surgery. According to HealthDay, the five-year survival rate was 15.7 percent for those who had surgery compared with 14 percent for those treated with radiation. While the survival rates were similar, radiation was the preferred treatment because of its lower rates of complications and death.

The studys authors wrote, these results are important, because several centers routinely use chemotherapy followed by surgery to treat patients with this stage of disease based on small randomized studies that showed that surgery alone in inferior to chemotherapy and surgery in stage IIIA patients.

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Tim Edwards is the author of many health related articles as well as the owner of a consumer advocacy website. Visit this Consumer Advocacy website for more information on ordering medication from online with no prescription.

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