Palliative thoracic radiotherapy can be delayed

Giving immediate palliative thoracic radiotherapy for patients with locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer with minimal symptoms does not improve symptom control, quality of life, or survival. In a randomised controlled trial of 230 patients, Falk and colleagues (p 465) compared immediate radiotherapy with radiotherapy delayed until needed to treat symptoms in patients with advanced disease but with few thoracic symptoms. At six months' follow up, the groups did not differ in terms of survival, presence of symptoms, activity level, psychological distress, or survival.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    StumbleUpon    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Immediate versus delayed palliative thoracic radiotherapy in patients with unresectable locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer and minimal thoracic symptoms: randomised controlled trial

Stephen J Falk, David J Girling, Roger J White, Penelope Hopwood, Angela Harvey, Wendi Qian, and Richard J Stephens
BMJ 2002 325: 465. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]