IMPRINT Mesothelioma Treatment Boosts Radiation Therapy

Doctors confirmed a novel radiation procedure can be combined safely and effectively with aggressive lung-sparing surgery to improve survival time and quality of life for patients with mesothelioma. After a decade of refinement, a small number of mesothelioma specialty centers now are using intensity-modulated pleural radiation therapy (IMPRINT) as part of the recent advancements in multidisciplinary treatments. “We’re hoping that all centers with experience in treating mesothelioma will now look at this as another technique to put in their arsenal,” radiation oncologist Dr. Kenneth Rosenzweig of the Mount Sinai Health System told Asbestos.com. “It’s exciting that technology has caught up with what we needed to help these patients.” Rosenzweig has treated mesothelioma for 20 years. He was an early contributor to the recent multicenter, phase II study of IMPRINT that found an acceptably low incidence of radiation pneumonitis (RP), a potential adverse side effect. The Journal of Clinical Oncology published that study in June. The study included patients at a New York cancer center, where Rosenzweig previously worked, and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Helps Lung-Sparing Surgery The findings should strengthen the growing belief among mesothelioma specialists that the lung-sparing pleurectomy/decortication (P/D) is a better option for most surgical candidates than the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), which removes the entire lung. Conventional...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: cancer treatments IMPRINT for mesothelioma lung cancer treatments mesothelioma treatment pleural mesothelioma radiation for mesothelioma radiation therapy Source Type: news