European researchers have reported for the first time that radiation therapy to the head ("prophylactic cranial irradiation," or PCI) given to patients who respond to chemotherapy for advanced small cell lung cancer cuts the risk that the cancer will spread to the brain by about two-thirds, and as a result extends patients' lives.

The findings were presented here Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

"Our data suggests that all patients with extensive small cell lung cancer who respond to chemotherapy could benefit from PCI," said lead author Ben Slotman, a professor at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.

"Because improvements in treatment results for patients with advanced small cell lung cancer have been minimal in the past two decades, these fingings represent a significant advance," said Slotman.

Small cell lung cancer makes up about 15 percent of lung cancer cases in the United States.

When cancer spreads to the brain, it often causes deterioration of physical and psychological functioning. Previous studies have shown that PCI can extend survival in patients with earlier stage small cell lung cancer limited to the lung or surrounding lymph nodes. However, this is the first study to evaluate PCI in patients with advanced disease who also have a high likelihood of developing brain metastases.

Dr. Slotman and his colleagues compared 143 patients with advanced small cell lung cancer whose tumors shrank with chemotherapy and who then received PCI, with a control group of 143 similar patients who did not receive PCI.

PCI was given daily for one to two weeks at doses comparable to those used to treat brain metastases after they develop.

One year later, the PCI group had significantly fewer brain metastases causing symptoms (14.6 percent) than the control group (40.4 percent). Moreover, 27.1 percent of the patients in the PCI group were alive after one year, compared with only 13.3 percent of patients in the control group.

Source: Xinhua