Radiation Therapy News and Research RSS Feed - Radiation Therapy News and Research

Radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy, x-ray therapy, or irradiation) is the use of a certain type of energy (called ionizing radiation) to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation therapy injures or destroys cells in the area being treated (the “target tissue”) by damaging their genetic material, making it impossible for these cells to continue to grow and divide. Although radiation damages both cancer cells and normal cells, most normal cells can recover from the effects of radiation and function properly. The goal of radiation therapy is to damage as many cancer cells as possible, while limiting harm to nearby healthy tissue.

Men with low-risk prostate cancers can choose watchful waiting for better quality of life, study says

Many men with low-risk, localized prostate cancers can safely choose active surveillance or "watchful waiting" instead of undergoing immediate treatment and have better quality of life while reducing health care costs, according to a study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. [More]
KLAS announces 2013 Best in KLAS Awards for medical equipment and infrastructure

KLAS announces 2013 Best in KLAS Awards for medical equipment and infrastructure

KLAS just released the 2013 Best in KLAS Awards: Medical Equipment & Infrastructure report ranking the best-performing imaging, pharmacy automation and infrastructure vendors in the world. [More]

Black women with breast cancer experience treatment delays, new study finds

Black women with breast cancer are more likely than Hispanic or white women to experience delays in the initiation of chemotherapy or radiation after surgery, finds a new study in Health Services Research. [More]
Radionuclide drug treatment planning goes to next level with 3-D patient models

Radionuclide drug treatment planning goes to next level with 3-D patient models

External beam radiation treatment has long been manipulated into the unique shape of patients' tumors for personalized cancer care. Technology providing a means of patient-specific radionuclide drug therapies has not been standardized, as it has been limited to software that requires oncologists to manually define the areas of tumors. [More]

International clinical study shows that BioProtect Balloon Implant has potential to reduce rectal injury

Several years ago, Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center became the first center in the United States to test an Israeli-invented device designed to increase the space between the prostate and the rectum in prostate cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy. [More]
Cancer Institute of New Jersey offers COMET-2 clinical trial to examine cabozantinib drug

Cancer Institute of New Jersey offers COMET-2 clinical trial to examine cabozantinib drug

The Cancer Institute of New Jersey is one of 50 sites across the nation to offer a clinical trial known as COMET-2 that examines whether the drug cabozantinib is effective in reducing bone pain in patients with prostate cancer that is no longer responsive to hormone therapy and has spread (metastasized) to other parts of the body. [More]
Instillation of chemotherapy can minimize recurrence and progression of bladder cancer

Instillation of chemotherapy can minimize recurrence and progression of bladder cancer

Researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center led by Dr. Karim Chamie have found that more intense surveillance and treatment of bladder cancer in the first two years after diagnosis could reduce the number of patients whose cancer returns after treatment and lower the disease's death rate. The study was published online ahead of press today in the journal Cancer. [More]
CTCA offers hope to Hispanics with advanced stage cancer

CTCA offers hope to Hispanics with advanced stage cancer

For the nation's fastest growing population, cancer ranked as the number one leading cause of death among Hispanics, based on a 2012 American Cancer Society report. [More]
Accuray announces treatment of first patient with new TomoHDA System

Accuray announces treatment of first patient with new TomoHDA System

Accuray Incorporated, announced today the first patient has been treated with its new TomoHDA System at Centre Oscar Lambret in Lille, France. [More]
Researchers to receive ASTRO Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of radiation oncology

Researchers to receive ASTRO Gold Medal for outstanding contributions to the field of radiation oncology

The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) will award Amato J. Giaccia, PhD, Radhe Mohan, PhD, FASTRO, and Prabhakar Tripuraneni, MD, FASTRO, with the Society's highest honor—the ASTRO Gold Medal. The 2013 awardees will receive the ASTRO Gold Medal during the Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, September 24, at ASTRO's 55th Annual Meeting, September 22-25, 2013, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. [More]
MU researcher examines how stories influence decision-making among patients

MU researcher examines how stories influence decision-making among patients

Stories often appear in health communication in order to encourage individuals to change behaviors, such as smoking or not wearing sunscreen. A University of Missouri researcher studied how stories influence patients' decision-making when behavior change is not the desired outcome of the health communication. [More]
Researchers demonstrate how modified citrus pectin works against cancer

Researchers demonstrate how modified citrus pectin works against cancer

A new review by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine highlights a large body of published research demonstrating how modified citrus pectin, works against cancer. [More]
Scientists pinpoint genetic traits of cells that give rise to gliomas

Scientists pinpoint genetic traits of cells that give rise to gliomas

A multi-institutional team of researchers have pinpointed the genetic traits of the cells that give rise to gliomas - the most common form of malignant brain cancer. The findings, which appear in the journal Cell Reports, provide scientists with rich new potential set of targets to treat the disease. [More]
Soligenix receives FDA Fast Track designation for SGX942 to treat patients with oral mucositis

Soligenix receives FDA Fast Track designation for SGX942 to treat patients with oral mucositis

Soligenix, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, announced today that its SGX942 development program for the treatment of oral mucositis as a result of radiation and/or chemotherapy treatment in head and neck cancer patients has received "Fast Track" designation from the US Food and Drug Administration. [More]

Study investigates gene expression signature to predict response to bevacizumab

A new test may help identify newly diagnosed glioblastoma patients more likely to benefit from bevacizumab (Avastin-), according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. [More]
MRIgFU ablation therapy reduces pain in 67% of patients with bone tumors

MRIgFU ablation therapy reduces pain in 67% of patients with bone tumors

Patients with cancer that has spread to their bones are often treated with radiation therapy to reduce pain. But if that treatment doesn't work, or can't be used again, a second, effective option now exists. [More]

Selumetinib demonstrates clinical benefit for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma

The experimental drug selumetinib is the first targeted therapy to demonstrate significant clinical benefit for patients with metastatic uveal melanoma, according to new Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center research presented on Saturday, June 1, at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. [More]

New clinical trial may help reduce radiation dose for patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer

Researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center and other institutions have completed a phase II clinical trial that may help identify those patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer who do not require the full radiation dose given in a standard regimen of Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Preliminary findings will be presented by Shanthi Marur, first author on the study and an oncologist at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Sunday, June 2. [More]

Glioblastoma patients treated with bevacizumab have deterioration in neurocognitive function

Many glioblastoma patients treated with bevacizumab (Avastin-) have significant deterioration in neurocognitive function, symptoms and quality of life. Not only that, the changes often predict treatment outcomes, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. [More]

Study supports future possibility of personalized medicine for cervical cancer

Doctors at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown that testing cervical tumors before treatment for vulnerability to chemotherapy predicts whether patients will do well or poorly with standard treatment. [More]