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  • Home > Blog > Treatment News > SBRT Should be Further Studied to Prove Effectiveness in Treating Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma and Other Cancers
Posted on Monday, May 9, 2011

SBRT Should be Further Studied to Prove Effectiveness in Treating Lung Cancer, Mesothelioma and Other Cancers

Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) technology is a relatively new technology used in the treatment of thoracic cancers including non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and mesothelioma.  Previous studies and reports have shown SBRT to be an effective radiation therapy allowing radiation oncologists and neurosurgeons to treat tumors with ultra-high precision while sparing healthy tissue.  However, a report conducted for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that there is a lack of evidence confirming its effectiveness and safety.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of HHS requested a technical brief on SBRT to provide an overview of key issues related to this emerging technology. The brief provided by ECRI Institute Evidence-based Practice Center, led by Kelley N. Tipton, M.P.H., concluded that although SBRT is widely used for a variety of malignant tumors, “a full systematic review of the current literature cannot answer questions on the effectiveness and safety of SBRT compared to other radiotherapy interventions.”

Pleural Mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer that is almost always caused by asbestos exposure, is typically treated with a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.  However, mesothelioma often has a complex growth pattern making radiation therapy difficult since pinpointing the malignant cells is difficult.  The use of SBRT has been touted as enabling radiologists to offer highly accurate treatments that are fine-tuned to treat cancer and avoid healthy tissues.

The researchers reviewed all available literature pertaining to SBRT, identifying 5,585 citations that were screened. Of them, 124 relevant studies were identified where SBRT was used as a treatment for solid malignant tumors, and none of the studies compared SBRT with any other form of radiation treatment. 

Due to the precision required in the delivery of SBRT therapy, the briefing points out that ensuring accurate delivery of the intended radiation “requires rigorous quality control and quality assurance measures for treatment planning and treatment delivery.”  Due to this, the researchers stated that “Comparative studies are needed to provide evidence that the theoretical advantages of SBRT over other radiation therapies actually occur in the clinical setting.”

The technical briefing indicated that two large ongoing clinical trials scheduled for completion in 2013 could address questions about the effectiveness and safety of SBRT as compared to surgical resection in resectable early-stage NSCLC.