2023-07-07 08:48:32
by Elena Meli
New guidelines indicate how best to combine radiotherapy and drugs, from chemotherapy to immunotherapy, but data still need to be collected for many combinations
Radiotherapy remains an indispensable cornerstone in tumor therapy and in the case of breast cancer, for example, up to 70 percent of patients are treated with radiation sooner or later during the course of treatment. For this reason, understanding how to integrate it with the increasingly numerous new treatments is essential: the new Guidelines of the European Society of Radiotherapy and Oncology (ESTRO) were born from this need, presented in Florence by a group of international experts in medical oncology, radiotherapy and biochemistry coordinated by the Radiotherapy Oncology Foundation (FRO).
Guidelines
The new Guidelines, which will be published shortly, are intended to guide clinicians but also scientific research in the near future because, as explained by Icro Meattini, professor of Oncological Radiotherapy at the University of Florence, coordinator of the Guidelines and adviser to the FRO , “Many breast cancer patients receive a combination of radiation therapy and medications, yet scientific evidence based on large-scale clinical trials on the interactions between these two treatments is limited. Hence the need to create Guidelines, a first step to arrive at more general Recommendations in which the curative value of radiotherapy and the evidence of its association with oncological drugs cannot continue to be ignored”. For some combinations the safety data is already solid enough, but especially for new drugs it is important to collect data from real clinical practice and to carry out studies designed for this purpose.
curative
The objective, indicated by the Guidelines, is also to identify subgroups of patients who may benefit more from the combination of radiotherapy and drugs, with a view to better personalizing treatment, and to evaluate the potential synergistic effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy or immunotherapy: some data seem to suggest that the association can enhance the benefits of the treatment, but more solid data are needed. Thus, while the new Guidelines indicate the direction to take in research, they are also a tool to underline the importance of this “Cinderella” of oncology because, as underlined by Lorenzo Livi, director of the Oncological Radiotherapy Unit of the Oncology Department of the ‘Careggi University Hospital of Florence and FRO member, «Radiation therapy is a fundamental weapon in oncology but many prejudices and “false myths” still resist today because it continues to be underestimated, often associated with palliation and surrounded by an aura of disinformation and mistrust. Radiotherapy, on the other hand, is to all intents and purposes the only curative strategy other than surgery and should not be feared, but correctly inserted into the patient’s therapeutic pathway», concludes Livi.
July 7, 2023 (change July 7, 2023 | 08:48)
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