Research demonstrates potential method to better control lung cancer using radiotherapy

Manchester scientists are working out how to safely increase the radiotherapy dose given to lung cancer patients – potentially offering improved local control and survival.

Standard treatment for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer is a combination of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Traditionally this is planned in a one-size-fits-all manner but the radiation dose may not always be enough to stop tumour growth.

The potential to increase the radiation dose to the cancerous tissue varies between patients and depends on the size and location of the tumour in relation to sensitive organs such as the spinal cord and lungs. Now researchers at The University of Manchester and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust – both part of the Manchester Cancer Research Centre – have looked at ways to personalise and increase the dose to the tumour while minimising the effect on healthy tissue.

Dr Corinne Faivre-Finn, researcher at The University of Manchester and Honorary Consultant at The Christie, who led the study, said: “Current standard options for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer are associated with poor survival. We wanted to see if more advanced methods of planning and delivering radiotherapy treatment could potentially allow an increase in radiation dose.”

The group used data from 20 lung cancer patients to investigate whether a newer radiotherapy technique – intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) – could potentially be used to increase the radiation dose to lung tumours, without harming healthy organs.

Their treatment planning methods ensured a safe radiation dose was delivered to the surrounding organs at risk. In an article recently published in the journal Clinical Oncology, they show that IMRT allowed an increase in radiation dose for non-small cell lung cancer.

“Our exploratory study suggests that using IMRT can allow radiation dose to be increased: calculations indicate that this could yield a 10% improvement in tumour control. We are starting a new clinical trial, funded by Cancer Research UK, investigating the delivery of this personalised IMRT treatment in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. We hope to demonstrate that the increase dose delivered to the tumour will lead to improved survival ” added Dr Faivre-Finn.

 

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/281696.php

 

X-ray imaging system developed that enables researchers to see ‘live’ how effective treatments are for cystic fibrosis

Published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the imaging method allows researchers to monitor the effectiveness of a treatment for the life-threatening genetic disorder.

Cystic fibrosis affects many of the body’s systems, but most severely the lungs, and currently it can take several months to measure how effective treatment is for the early-fatal lung disease.

Dr Kaye Morgan, lead researcher on the paper from Monash University, said the new x-ray imaging method allows researchers to look at soft tissue structures, for example the brain, airways and lungs, which are effectively invisible in conventional x-ray images.

“At the moment we typically need to wait for a cystic fibrosis treatment to have an effect on lung health, measured by either a lung CT scan or breath measurement, to see how effective that treatment is,” Dr Morgan said.

“However the new imaging method allows us for the first time to non-invasively see how the treatment is working ‘live’ on the airway surface.”

Dr Morgan said this x-ray imaging method would enable doctors and researchers to measure how effective treatments are, and progress new treatments to the clinic at a much quicker rate, a key goal of co-authors Dr Martin Donnelley and Dr David Parsons of the CF Gene Therapy group at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute.

“Because we will be able to see how effectively treatments are working straight away, we’ll be able to develop new treatments a lot more quickly, and help better treat people with cystic fibrosis,” Dr Morgan said.

Dr Morgan said the new imaging method, which was developed using a synchrotron x-ray source, may also open up possibilities in assessing how effective treatments were for other lung, heart and brain diseases.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/281152.php