Radiotherapy News and Research

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Radiation therapy (in North America), or radiotherapy (in the UK and Australia) also called radiation oncology, and sometimes abbreviated to XRT, is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells (not to be confused with radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis).

Radiotherapy with cetuximab significantly improves disease control and survival in head and neck cancer

Combination treatment using the monoclonal antibody cetuximab, along with high dose radiotherapy in the treatment of patients with loco-regionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck results in significant improvements in both loco-regional control and overall survival, according to Dr Jordi Giralt of Val d'Hebron University Hospital.

26 Oct 2004

Project to refine and fine-tune radiotherapy treatment for cancer

The EU-funded GENEPI project will provide the facility for essential research which will improve and refine radiotherapy for European cancer patients

26 Oct 2004

Blocking gene opens avenues for treating prostate cancer

Cancer Research UK scientists in Oxford have found a new way to make prostate cancer succumb more readily to currently used treatments.

22 Oct 2004

Black men have better sexual and urinary function than white men after prostate cancer surgery

Five years after surgery for prostate cancer, African-American men reported better sexual and urinary function than non-Latino white men-yet they were also more dissatisfied with problems related to their sexual function

13 Oct 2004

Radiation either before or after chemotherapy and surgery just as effective for treating lung cancer

Radiation therapy before chemotherapy and surgery is just as effective in treating advanced non-small cell lung cancer as chemotherapy followed by surgery then radiation

5 Oct 2004

A revolutionary approach to angiogenesis could make cancer treatment more effective at killing tumours

Dr. Olivier Feron and his team from the University of Louvain Medical School in Brussels have turned the whole concept of targeting tumour blood vessels on its head. Instead of the conventional approach of trying to starve tumour cells of the blood supply they need to grow, they are doing the opposite – opening up the tumour blood supply to allow better access for cancer drugs and more effective radiotherapy.

30 Sep 2004

Researchers show gossypol – a drug refined from cottonseed oil is a cancer treatment booster

New research has opened up the prospect that gossypol – a drug refined from cottonseed oil and previously tried and abandoned as a male contraceptive – could boost the effectiveness of treatment for prostate tumours and possibly other common cancers as well.

30 Sep 2004

Phase II trials of the first second-generation antisense cancer drug to be used in patients soon to be underway

Phase II trials of the first second-generation antisense cancer drug to be used in patients are soon to be underway in the wake of a successful Phase I study, which has demonstrated that the new drug blocks its target gene in exactly the way it is designed to do.

28 Sep 2004

Trial shows which brain cancer patients benefit from temozolomide

An international team of scientists and cancer specialists has identified which patients with the deadly form of brain tumours called glioblastomas are likely to live longer if they are treated with temozolomide, and which patients are likely to get only marginal, if any, benefit.

28 Sep 2004

Chemotherapy improves survival and reduces the risk of recurrence in women with stage I ovarian cancer

A new study finds chemotherapy improves survival and reduces the risk of recurrence in women with stage I ovarian cancer (cancer that has not spread beyond the ovary). But it remains unclear which patients would most benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy and what the optimal treatment regimen would entail.

27 Sep 2004

New link in the growth of Ewing’s sarcoma

To develop new therapeutic approaches to cancer, it is essential to understand the long and extremely complex process that underlies it, in other words the various stages of cancer development from the initial mutation to the tumor.

23 Sep 2004

Fish oils appear to reduce breast cancer risk

Researchers who found that fish oils appear to reduce breast cancer risk have now discovered that the oils may especially benefit women with particular genetic makeups.

21 Sep 2004

Role of gene identified in development of tumours in children

Medical researchers from Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research (CCIA) have made significant progress in understanding tumour initiation in the aggressive, debilitating childhood cancer, neuroblastoma

14 Sep 2004

BNCT treatment has had an excellent response in a patient with head and neck cancer

A Finnish research group has been the first in the world to publish an article in which BNCT treatment has had an excellent response in a patient with head and neck cancer for whom there was no other treatment available.

14 Sep 2004

University of Nottingham research developments could mean new drugs will reach cancer patients more quickly

A £3 million grant and the establishment of a specialized business unit that will help new treatments reach cancer patients more quickly, have underlined The University of Nottingham’s place at the forefront of cancer drug development.

2 Sep 2004

Women over 70 are safe to not have radiation treatment after heaving a lumpectomy

Two new studies reported in The New England Journal of Medicine suggest that older women with breast cancer are safe to not have radiation treatment after heaving a lumpectomy.

1 Sep 2004

Charlie Watts treated for throat cancer

The drummer for The Rolling Stones Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is currently being treated for throat cancer. He is reported to be at the end of a six-week course of radiotherapy after being diagnosed in June of this year.

15 Aug 2004

Novel pharmacological target for cannabinoid-based therapies

Cannabinoids, the active ingredients in marijuana, restrict the sprouting of blood vessels to brain tumors by inhibiting the expression of genes needed for the production of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

15 Aug 2004

New treatment strategy for brain cancer

Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center researchers have found that combining ionizing radiation with a secreted protein that selectively inhibits tumor cell growth and survival can target cancer cells and leave healthy cells alone, perhaps presenting a new approach for treating the deadliest type of brain tumor.

9 Aug 2004

Aggressive treatment for nasopharyngeal cancer shown to be more effective

Radiation therapy (RT) has been the most important treatment modality with curative potential in treating patients with cancer of the nasopharynx, the part of the pharynx that lies above the soft palate.