​ A new study reports that compared with photon radiotherapy, carbon ion radiotherapy reduces the risk of subsequent primary tumors in patients with localized prostate cancer. "The risk of subsequent primary cancers in patients with prostate cancer after treatment with photon radiotherapy is small in absolute numbers, but it is higher than that after surgical treatment," explain the authors of the study, which was published in The Lancet Oncology . "Carbon ion radiotherapy has a theoretically lo...

A phase 3 clinical trial reports that adding docetaxel to a standard regimen consisting of radiotherapy and long-term androgen suppression (AS) therapy improves outcomes for men with high-risk nonmetastatic prostate cancer. In the United States, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men. Of the 20% of patients whose prostate cancer is considered high risk, around 30% to 40% experience a relapse following initial treatment. Less than 50% of these patients are c...

​ A phase 2 clinical trial reports that for children with ependymoma, the third most common pediatric brain tumor, radiation immediately following surgical resection substantially increases survival, even improving outcomes for children under the age of three. "Historically, children under the age of three with ependymoma have a worse prognosis than older children," said Thomas E. Merchant, DO, PhD, Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and first ...

Radiation therapy to the bone marrow destroys cancerous leukemia and lymphoma cells, but it also leaves patients susceptible to infection until their blood cells can regenerate. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to speed up this regeneration by using a technique known as "mechanopriming" to enhance the ability of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to aid in the process. Mesenchymal stromal cells are stem cells capable of differentiating into a variety ...

Data from a randomized phase 3 NRG Oncology trial presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting suggests that whole-brain radiotherapy can be administered more safely by directing radiation away from the hippocampus. In a trial of 518 patients with brain metastases randomized to whole-brain radiotherapy plus memantine, a cognition-enhancing medication, with or without hippocampal avoidance, the researchers found that hippocampal avoidance was associated with a 2...