Older patients with a type of cancer called soft-tissue sarcomas may
benefit more from radiation therapy after surgery than younger patients
do, a new study suggests.
The results might change the way older
patients are treated for soft-tissue sarcomas, which are cancers that
develop in muscles, fat and other types of tissue, the study authors
said.
Surgery
is typically used to treat these cancers. But it hasn't been clear if
radiation therapy after surgery improved survival.
The new study
looked at information from more than 15,300 U.S. adults with localized
soft-tissue sarcomas. Some were treated with surgery alone, while others
had surgery and radiation. Treatments occurred between 1990 and 2011.
Radiation
after surgery improved survival compared to surgery alone, but this was
seen mostly in patients 65 and older, the study showed.
"We
found that older patients had a survival benefit with radiation, but in
younger patients, many of those benefits went away," said principal
investigator Dr. Robert Canter, an associate professor of surgery at the
University of California, Davis.
"It seems that older patients respond better to the combination of surgery and radiation," he said in a university news release.
Because
the study findings were based on observations of previous trial data,
it did not prove that radiation benefited older patients.
Further
research is needed to confirm the findings and to learn more about why
radiation after surgery seems to offer greater benefits to older
patients, Canter said. With follow-up, this might lead to improved
treatment for older patients, he said.
source-- health.usnews
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