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Radiation after surgery reduces chance of
Melanoma returning
Newswise — High-risk melanoma patients who
are treated with radiation after surgery
have a significantly lower risk of their
cancer returning to the lymph nodes (19
percent), compared to those patients who do
not have radiation therapy (31 percent),
according to the first randomized study of
its kind presented at the plenary session,
November 2, 2009, at the 51st Annual Meeting
of the American Society for Radiation
Oncology (ASTRO).
“Results of this trial now confirm the place
of radiation therapy in the management of
patients who have high risk features
following surgery for melanoma involving the
lymph nodes,” Bryan Burmeister, M.D., lead
author of the study and a radiation
oncologist at Princess Alexandra Hospital in
Brisbane, Australia said.
“In some institutions, radiation treatment
is routine protocol, while in others, the
protocol has been either for patients to
just be observed, or receive some type of
adjuvant chemotherapy or immunotherapy. I
encourage patients with melanoma to talk to
their doctors about whether radiation should
be added to their treatment plan.”
When melanoma has spread from its original
site to the lymph nodes, treatment typically
involves surgically removing cancerous and
the remaining lymph nodes in that region, a
surgery called a lymphadenectomy. This
multicenter, randomized trial examined the
effects of external beam radiation treatment
after surgery for melanoma patients who had
a high risk of the cancer returning to the
lymph nodes (regional recurrence).
During external beam radiation therapy, a
beam (or multiple beams) of radiation is
directed through the skin to the cancer and
the immediate surrounding area in order to
destroy the main tumor and/or any nearby
cancer cells that remain after surgery. The
treatments are outpatient and generally
painless, much like receiving an X-ray.
From March 2002 to September 2007, 217
patients from 16 cancer centers who had
undergone a lymphadenectomy for melanoma
cancer were randomized to receive radiation
treatment within 12 weeks after surgery or
be observed, with a median follow-up of 27
months.
Results of the study show there was
significant improvement in the control of
regional recurrence among patients who
underwent radiation therapy, compared to the
observation group.
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