New cancer treatment means longer life

A pioneering cancer treatment, essentially surgery without a scalpel, is showing substantial benefits for patients, including increased life expectancy, a new Irish study has shown.

An analysis of outcomes for 881 patients who underwent radiosurgery at Dublin’s Beacon Hospital between 2006-2014 showed an average 15-month increase in the life expectancy of 86 patients with secondary brain tumours, when compared to conventional radiotherapy treatment.

The study, conducted by the hospital’s consultant radiation oncology team led by Professor John Armstrong also shows:

- Survival was particularly prolonged in those patients who had no active cancer outside the brain at the time brain tumours were treated;

- Use of the treatment in early-stage lung cancers had a dual effect of eradicating tumours while also delivering enhanced survival outcomes for patients;

- Few significant side effects associated with these treatments where patients were not fit for surgery or a tumour was inoperable.

Prof Armstrong, former chair of the Irish Cancer Society, said the findings indicated the treatment had the same cure rate for early lung cancer as surgery.

“There is a very high prospect of getting rid of the tumour. The cure rates with this seem to be the same as if the tumour was cut out.

“A decade ago people with lung cancer who weren’t fit for surgery didn’t have access to this treatment and they didn’t do very well. But this technique looks as if it is as good as surgery.”

The treatment, known as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), is a method of delivering high dose radiotherapy directed at small tumours, using precision targeting.

Radiation delivery is synchronised with the patient’s breathing cycle, ideal for lung tumours which may move significantly due to the patient breathing, but also tumours in the upper part of the abdomen — such as liver, pancreas, kidney — where organs and tumours also move a lot due to breathing. SRS allows radiation to be delivered at the optimal point in the breathing cycle, minimising the effect on nearby organs.

It is typically delivered in one to five treatment sessions while traditional radiotherapy is delivered over multiple sessions.

The treatment is available at Beacon to both public and private patients.