If 80% benefit from a treatment, is that enough?

Researchers confirm lone targeted radiation dose may work as well as longer breast-cancer course 

Can one dose of targeted radiation be as effective a breast-cancer treatment as a longer course of radiation?

Yes, according to a story by BBC health reporter Rachel Schraer last week that reports as well that researchers "said people who received the shorter treatment were also less likely to die of other cancers and heart disease." 

There exists a challenge to the study, however.

Some cancer specialists point out, the BBC piece says, that 20 percent of the patients studied received extra doses of radiotherapy.

         Professor Jayant Vaidya

According to Schraer's article, Professor Jayant Vaidya, lead author of the study, while noting that 80 percent still benefitted, "said he had expected a proportion of the women to need extra radiotherapy, since post-op tests could reveal tumors were bigger or more aggressive than expected."

Targeted Intraoperative Radiotherapy, which was developed by doctors at University College London, where Vaidya toils in addition to having a private practice, involves the lone dose being delivered by a small device placed inside the breast directly on the site of the cancer immediately after the tumor is surgically removed.

The procedure takes place during the same operation as the removal.

Standard radiation treatments normally call for between 15 and 30 additional hospital visits, although that number has temporarily been reduced to about five because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Findings, involving 2,298 women with breast cancer in 10 countries, were based on 10-year marks and reported in original research. This follow-up study, which tracked women up to five years after their treatment, confirmed the original conclusion.

Previous studies, not incidentally, "had shown the [single-dose] treatment also had fewer radiation-related side-effects, including pain and changes to the breast's appearance," Schraer writes. 

Information about other treatments can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at male caregivers. 

Doctors cite value of immunotherapy

Lung cancer patients are heavily benefitting from new treatments, Parade magazine reports

A lot of good news has been developing in the past several years about finding and treating lung cancer, according to Parade magazine.

A recent article by Marygrace Taylor suggests that, despite the disease growing for both never-smokers and women, "there's reason to be optimistic."

How so?

"There's been a huge jump in how long people are living with lung cancer," the piece quotes Dr. Nathan Pennell, Cleveland Clinic oncologist, as saying. "It's an extraordinary change."

Dr. Nathan Pennell

The Parade story then goes on to cite the value of such treatments as immunotherapy, which "helps the immune system better recognize and remove cancer cells without necessarily impacting normal cells," according to Dr. Jacob Sands, an American Lung Association spokesman. 

More than 1,000 clinical trials are currently studying how patients "can benefit from checkpoint inhibitors, immunotherapy drugs that block proteins that cancer cells use to stave off attacks from the immune system," Taylor writes.

Pennell adds that "we now know that if you add a checkpoint inhibitor to chemo, people live substantially longer" — and most likely with fewer side effects.

Dr. Jacob Sands

Sands also points to the efficacy of an advanced screening tool like low-dose CT scans, which "catch cancers at earlier stages when they're more likely to be cured."

Another new weapon in the war against lung cancer is stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), a specialized form of highly targeted radiation "often used to treat patients with early-stage lung cancer when surgery isn't an option."

One recent trial, the article reports, found the treatment "could double survival time without progression of [the] disease."

Finally, advanced bronchoscopy, which uses a lighted tube to examine abnormal parts of the lung just as traditional bronchoscopy does but also utilizes "smaller, more powerful tools" to create 3D maps of patients' lungs and helps doctors access areas that the traditional method can't reach.

More information about innovations in cancer treatments can be found in "Rollercoaster: How a man can survive his partner's breast cancer," a VitalityPress book that I, Woody Weingarten, aimed at caregivers.