Home

Cover Story

Table of Contents

E-Newsletter

Article Archive

Editorial Calendar

Datebook

Writers' Guidelines

Orgs/Links

Opinion Polls

Reprints

Forum

Search

Jan. 23 - Radiotherapy as Effective as Surgery in Bladder Cancer Treatment

The study by Cancer Research UK scientists has found that survival rates among bladder cancer patients treated with radiotherapy in Leeds are the same as those associated with radical cystectomy - surgery involving the complete removal of the bladder.

The finding suggests that radiotherapy could be preferred over surgery, particularly in elderly patients, because of the potentially severe impact on quality of life that removing the bladder can have.

The researchers, led by Dr Anne Kiltie based at the Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre, part of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Leeds, analysed the medical records of 169 patients treated for invasive bladder cancer between 1996 and 2000. 97 of the patients had been treated with radiotherapy, while 89 had undergone surgery.

The survival rates for the two treatment groups, in terms of deaths from bladder cancer, were then compared five years and eight years after treatment, with no significant differences at either time interval found.

The five-year survival rate for radiotherapy patients was 56.8%, compared with 53.4% of surgery-treated patients. At eight years, survival rates were 54.9% and 53.4% respectively. This was despite the radiotherapy group being older, with an average age of 75.3 years compared with an average of 68.2 years for the surgery group.

There was also no difference in how likely the disease was to return in the two treatment groups, with 34% of the radiotherapy treatment group experiencing recurrence, compared with 37.5% of those treated with surgery.

Dr Anne Kiltie, lead author of the paper, said: "Until now surgery has been considered better than radiotherapy in the treatment of bladder cancer that has spread to the muscle wall of the bladder. Although radiotherapy carries its own long term side effects, the interesting finding in our study was that the older, less fit patients did as well as the younger, fitter patients who had surgery to treat their cancer."

"Since bladder cancer is a disease of older people, radiotherapy will play an increasingly important role as the population ages, and this study encourages us to believe that such elderly patients will not be disadvantaged by having an alternative curative treatment to surgery for their bladder cancer."

Source: Cancer Research, UK

(View the Daily News Archive)

Survey

Is teleradiology more of a help or a threat to your facility? Help     Threat     We do not use teleradiology in our facility.     View results