Fewer Side Effects With SBRT Radiation Technique

November 30th, 2016

Surviving cancer and the treatment of it is a difficult process. Even if treatment is successful, people with cancer fear that it will come back. If it does come back, patients are often left with fewer treatment options and even more difficult side effects from the treatment. But University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) researchers are reporting a radiation technique that has fewer side effects than traditional treatment techniques. The study, led by Diane Ling, MD, a resident in UPCI’s radiation oncology residency program, showed that stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), a technique for delivering pinpoint radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors, resulted in only half as many patients with recurrent head and neck cancer suffering severe, long-term side effects as compared to patients in previously reported studies using more traditional treatment techniques. This discovery by UPCI scientists was made in the largest and longest follow-up analysis to date of patients with recurrent head and neck cancer treated with SBRT. The findings make SBRT a more attractive possibility for patients with few options left.