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Study finds undergoing radiotherapy this way can halve your treatment time

The results of a Cancer Research UK- funded clinical trial indicate that speeding up the radiotherapy process from once a day for 6 and a half weeks to twice a day for 3 weeks does not affect chances of survival for cancer patients

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A demonstartion of a radiotherapy machine.
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Lung cancer patients can breathe a sigh of relief as a new study has suggested that they can get their radiotherapy over with more quickly without affecting their survival.

Having radiotherapy once a day for 6 and a half weeks or twice a day for 3 weeks, when combined with chemotherapy, is equally good at treating small cell lung cancer that hasn’t spread, the study revealed. These results from a Cancer Research UK-funded clinical trial, presented at the ASCO cancer conference, mean patients and doctors can choose together which treatment suits them best.

The CONVERT clinical trial also found that small cell lung cancer patients live longer and with fewer side effects than previous studies suggested which is likely to be because of the modern radiotherapy techniques used. Around 550 patients from around the world were split into two groups - one receiving radiotherapy twice a day over three weeks and the other once a day at a higher dose over six and a half weeks. All patients also had chemotherapy.

Scientists from the University of Manchester and the Christie Hospital with others from France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Canada found that survival in both groups was similar with 56% of patients who had radiotherapy twice a day surviving for two years compared with 51% of those given it once a day.

Importantly, the majority of side effects from radiotherapy were similar in both groups, apart from neutropenia, weakening of the immune system, which happened more often in twice daily treatment group (in 74% of the patients who had twice daily radiotherapy compared with 65% of the once daily group).

The trial results support the use of either once daily or twice daily radiotherapy with chemotherapy as standard treatment for small cell lung cancer that hasn't spread. This means that individual patients' treatment can be planned with their doctor according to what works best for them and their hospital.

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