Radiotherapy can benefit people who have survived small cell lung cancer, according to new research.

Small cell lung cancer often spreads to the brain, where it is no longer amenable to chemotherapy. But radiotherapy might help, say researchers in Saskatchewan, Canada. They report upon a retrospective study of all 98 patients who survived small cell lung cancer between 1987 and 1998. Some of them had received cranial irradiation, some not.

There was little difference in overall survival between the two groups - 20 months with radiotherapy and 19 months without. When quality of life and disease-free survival were taken into account, however, there was a difference - the radiotherapy group had 14.7 months of quality survival time, compared to 10 months without radiotherapy. And further analysis showed the treatment to be cost-effective too. So for survivors of this cancer, cranial irradiation may be a worthwhile investment.

Source

International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology and Physics January 2002