A new study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that treating soft tissue sarcoma with radiation over a significantly shorter period of time is safe, and likely just as effective, as a much longer conventional course of treatment.
A new study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that treating soft tissue sarcoma with radiation over a significantly shorter period of time is safe, and likely just as effective, as a much longer conventional course of treatment.
Sarcoma, a rare type of cancer of the soft tissues (for example, muscle, nerves, fat, or fibrous tissue) or bone, affects about 13,000 people of all ages in the United States each year. Many people with a soft tissue sarcoma diagnosis receive a five-week course of radiation therapy (daily Monday through Friday). Four to five weeks after that, the tumor is removed in surgery. In this study at UCLA, a national leader in the care of patients with sarcoma, researchers used a condensed five-day radiation regimen that considerably cuts down the length of treatment and the time to surgery.
“Shortening the radiation therapy from five weeks to five days has been a very meaningful change for patients,” said lead author Dr. Anusha Kalbasi, assistant professor of radiation oncology in the division of molecular and cellular oncology. “Five weeks of daily treatments is a burdensome commitment for patients. The daily back-and-forth can be expensive and time consuming, and it can really interfere with work, school or parenting. So finding a way to safely shorten the radiation treatment is a significant advancement in improving the quality of care for patients with hard-to-treat cancers like sarcoma.”
Read more at University of California - Los Angeles
Image: Dr. Fritz Eilber, left, and Dr. Anusha Kalbasi. CREDIT: Milo Mitchell/UCLA
