Reirradiation Effective in Post-Radiation Sarcoma
Source: MedScape Today News Reirradiation plus hyperthermia is an effective treatment for radiation-associated sarcoma (RAS) and could even cure some of these rare tumors, a small new study suggests. "The reirradiation plus hyperthermia as we used it appears to be quite successful with a very high response rate and reasonable local control rate," Dr. Geertjan van Tienhoven of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health. RAS develops in areas previously reirradiated with 25 to 80 Gray, usually with a latency period of three years or more, and with a different histology from the original tumor, according to a June 28th online paper in Cancer. Dr. van Tienhoven predicts that "radiation-associated sarcomas are going to be more frequent in the future, because of an increasing prevalence of breast cancer survivors who are at risk, be it a low risk, for RAS." These tumors are usually resected with radical surgery and sometimes adjuvant chemotherapy. To date, according the paper, there haven't been any randomized trials or other prospective studies of reirradiation for RAS. "Many papers and textbooks state that radiation shouldn't be done in these tumors because they are caused by radiation. Indeed it sounds counterintuitive to irradiate again," Dr. van Tienhoven said in an interview. But using hyperthermia with reirradiation allows for a lower radiation dose, he and his coauthors explain. The Academic Medical Center and the Institute Verbeeten have "extensive experience" with this approach, for example in breast cancer recurrence in previously irradiated [...]