For years, doctors have found that chemotherapy is not effective against lung cancer. But recent research seems to prove the opposite, and for some months in the United States policy is changing. In patients who are at the first stage of lung cancer and undergoing surgery to remove the tumor, were also apply subsequent sessions of chemotherapy, a common practice in other cancers such as breast or colon.
Was quoted in the article by Dr. John Minna, director of research at the Medical Center of the University of Texas Southwestern and an expert in lung cancer, the benefits of this treatment are “at least as good if not better” than other cancers.
The change is the result of two studies presented during a conference on cancer two years ago. One, led by Professor Winton University of Alberta, conducted with 482 patients in Canada and the United States showed that 69 percent of patients who received surgery plus chemotherapy were live five years after treatment compared with 54 percent of patients who received surgery alone. In this experiment, patients were treated with a combination of cisplatin and vinorelbine once a week for 16 weeks.
According to the article in the world of lung cancer research, a difference of 15 points is huge. Overall, patients who received chemotherapy after surgery lived an average of 94 months, compared with an average of 73 months who survived the other patients.
Other studies show similar results began a year ago and some doctors began offering courses of chemotherapy to patients after surgery. Prof. Winton’s study is published this month by the New England Journal of Medicine
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