Giving patients with rectal cancer radiotherapy before surgery improves their survival chances and is also cost-effective.

Previous research suggests that giving a patient radiation before they receive surgery to remove the tumour reduces the chance of local recurrence. Later results showed that the practice also significantly improves overall survival.

That's why radiotherapy, then surgery, has become accepted treatment for rectal cancer in Sweden, where the research was done, and elsewhere. Now researchers in Uppsala report on how the medical costs stack up in terms of years of life saved by the treatment. They found that patients given preoperative radiotherapy survived an average of 21 months longer than those who did not receive radiation. It costs only $5,188 to treat a patient with radiotherapy and surgery than with surgery alone. In terms of extra years, the researchers think this is very cost effective, comparing well with other accepted forms of medical intervention.

Source

International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics November 2002