Longer Lives for Certain Stage Four Cancer Patients

Two researchers have found a way to extend the life expectancy of a subset of Stage Four lung cancer patients who previously didn’t respond to chemotherapy alone. Their work identified two dozen patients among the roughly 30 percent of individuals with Stage Four lung cancer whose tumors did not respond to standard chemotherapy. Believing that the cancer likely had not yet spread to other organs, the doctors delivered concentrated doses of radiation to specific tumors. Over a six-year period, UT Southwestern researchers Robert Timmerman and Puneeth Iyengar found they were able to significantly extend the life expectancy of this group of patients. (D Healthcare Daily)