A four-year study assessing Surgery for Mesothelioma After Radiation Therapy (SMART) —a new approach to mesothelioma treatment—has shown that treating the disease with radiation prior to surgery can more than double a patient’s three-year survival rate. According to data published in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, the study’s 25 participants, all patients at the Princess Margaret Cancer Center, had a remarkable three-year survival rate of 72%. Comparatively, individuals who are not treated with radiation prior to surgery have a 32% three-year survival rate.
“The patients in our study experienced shorter treatment, fewer complications, and speedier recovery,” says principal investigator and lead author Dr. John Cho, who is a radiation oncologist at Princess Margaret Cancer Center and an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto. The study’s other author is Dr. Marc de Perrot, a thoracic surgeon.
The SMART technique involves a five-day course of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), a specialized technique that spares the heart, spine, and other healthy tissues from unnecessary exposure to radiation doses. Surgery must be done the following week because the lung becomes sensitive to radiation toxicity.
“These research results offer real hope to mesothelioma patients who have too often been told in the past that they may have only six months to live,” says Dr. Marc de Perrot, a thoracic surgeon and also an author on the study. “We need to shorten the diagnostic and treatment cycle because we now have an approach that makes it possible to control the disease and improve quality of life for several years.”
Mesothelioma is primarily caused by exposure to asbestos, which is a banned substance once commonly used in a variety of industrial applications. There are approximately 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed each year, and the disease is almost always fatal.