A research conducted at University of California Irvine Medical Center has developed a new therapy that, if delivered endoscopically, in combination with radiation therapy and chemotherapy, can prove beneficial for patients suffering from advanced esophageal cancer. The new biological therapy (TNFerade), in which an agent preventing tumor is injected, was tried on 24 patients of the highly fatal form of cancer. The treatment has a non-replicating virus, engineered to deliver the gene for a protein that fights cancer.

A recent study conducted at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia indicates that men with early prostate cancer whose PSA (prostate-specific antigen) levels have doubled within 6 months of radiation therapy benefit significantly from a hormonal therapy, if initiated sooner. The findings of the research team suggest that the benefit of immediate use of androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) was more in patients whose PSA doubled within 6 months than in patients whose PSA had longer doubling times.

Pancreatic cancer, difficult to detect in the early stages and having incidence of recurring in the postoperative stage, has found an effective treatment in chemo-radiotherapy. Gemcitabine, an effective radio-sensitizer, has led to better results in patients suffering with this form of cancer, increasing survival with a clinical benefit. A study conducted by Pancreatic Diseases Branch of Kyushu University in Japan, using a schedule that infused gemcitabine twice weekly for patients suffering with locally advanced pancreatic cancer gave positive results on the survival rate and median survival time.

Swiss doctors have executed the country’s first clinical treatments using RapidArc™ technology from Varian Medical Systems. Clinicians carried out each patient’s scheduled radiotherapy course using RapidArc. IOSI (Istituto Oncologico della Svizzera Italiana) has become the first non-university European hospital to treat with the use of Varian’s RapidArc. The technology delivers a volumetric intensity-modulated radiation therapy in a single or multiple arcs of the treatment machine around the patient, delivering advanced image-guided IMRT much faster than the conventional IMRT.

Elekta recently announced that it has received CE Mark clearance to distribute Elekta Compact(TM), the latest addition to its line of treatment systems, offering clinicians an easy to implement more affordable solution for radiation therapy. The clearance from the European Union confirms that Elekta Compact meets the standards for consumer safety. The need for a low energy system in specialized cases made Elekta come up with this product in the range of linear accelerators that has ultra-compact design. It is capable of delivering advanced radiation therapy, especially in markets of developing countries.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) this month became the first U.S. medical center to offer a speedier cancer radiation therapy. The new RapidArc therapy, which is the next-generation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), can turn a 20-minute radiotherapy session into a 90-second session for selected cancer patients. Additionally, the new therapy saves healthy human tissue from unwanted radiation exposure at rates that are similar to or better than other radiotherapy techniques. Faster radiation delivery times reduce the chances that a slight move will affect the accuracy of the radiotherapy targeting.

Alfacell Corporation announced that Dr. Intae Lee of the University of Pennsylvania has reported that Alfacell’s ONCONASE (ranpirnase) could be a promising radiation sensitizer for lung cancer treatment. Dr. Lee presented the pre-clinical in vivo and in vitro data in a poster at the 2008 American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting being held during April 12 - 16 in San Diego. Dr. Lee provided pre-clinical evidence that ONCONASE +/- I-buthionine sulfoximide significantly increased the radiation-induced growth delay of lung tumors in vivo without increases in skin reaction, as compared to radiation alone.

According to a study published in the International Journal for Radiation Oncology Biology Physics, the breast cancer treatment choices should not be based on the patient’s age alone. Treatments need to be selected based on the age and the type of comorbidities, say the researchers.