Drastically reducing the radiation treatment cycle
An exciting new treatment is being used in cancer centres around the country – thanks to a Cancer Research Trust New Zealand-funded clinical trial.
The trial compared long-course radiotherapy for lung cancers to a new method, and showed that the new therapy, given in only three treatments over two weeks, is better than current radiotherapy, which is given over six and half weeks. Reducing the length of the cancer radiation treatment cycle allows more patients to be treated over a shorter period of time, resulting in a treatment that is less costly and time-consuming, while making a real di erence to the patients and their whanau. Patients who have received the new therapy are showing faster recovery and better survival rates and the focused treatment means less scarring to the lung tissue. “ e whole procedure was organised quickly,” says Jo, who was treated in Christchurch in August. “ ere were a few days between the treatments and I was able to do whatever I wanted. I su ered no ill e ects at all – no burning – and I found out last week that my treatment was completely successful.” It was back in 2012 that radiation oncologist Dr Scott Babington received the grant from Cancer Research Trust New Zealand that allowed his team to begin trialling a new method of treating lung cancer patients. “Stereotactic ablative radiation therapy [SABR] can be used to treat early-stage lung cancers and cancer that has spread from other places to the lung, liver, spine or brain,” he says. “It’s a focused radiation therapy that delivers a high dose to the cancer or tumour, with very little to the surrounding tissue.”
“The trial showed SABR is more e ective compared to standard radiotherapy,” – Dr Scott Babington
For Babington and the team of doctors, nurses, radiation therapists and physicists based in clinics throughout New Zealand, clinical research is an important part of daily practice. “We have a dedicated research team and are part of the Transtasman Radiation Oncology Research Group,” he says. “ e clinical trial showed SABR is more e ective compared to standard radiotherapy. You cannot get better than that!” Cancer Research Trust New Zealand specialises in supporting cancer research like Babington’s right from the laboratory to rst use in patients. “ is is vital work that makes such a di erence to patients who have cancer and their whanau,” says Babington. “We are making a di erence already, but there is more work to be done.”