Radiation therapy more effective than chemotherapy in treating early stage IIa testicular cancer

A new study recommended radiation therapy for stage IIa testicular cancer patients over chemotherapy. The recommendation was the result of an analysis of data of 2,437 patients with stage IIa testicular seminoma who were diagnosed from 1998 through 2012, found in the US National Cancer Data Base.

Results of the research, made by scientists at the University of Pittsburg, show better five-year survival for stage IIa patients who had radiotherapy compared with multi-agent chemotherapy with 99 and 93 percent survival rates, reports Medicalnewstoday.

For those with stage IIb of the ailment, radiotherapy was still better with a 95.2 percent five-year survival rate compared to 92.4 percent for chemotherapy. However, for stage IIc patients, multi-agent chemotherapy is the preferred treatment due to high risk of distant progression.

Results of the research were presented at the ESTRO 35 conference and published in Clinical Oncology. The study provides evidence in favour of radiotherapy for stage IIa patients.

Prior to the study, the US National Cancer Comprehensive Network guidelines recommended radiotherapy for stage IIa patients. But the European Association of Urology gave patients the choice of radiotherapy or chemotherapy.

The release of the study is timely because of an observed slow shift away from radiation toward chemotherapy for treatment of stage IIa and IIb patients in recent years due to misperception of their relative toxicities. The shift needs to be corrected, the study says, because increased chemotherapy use were linked with later year of diagnosis, treatment at an academic centre and positive lymph nodes, confirmed by pathology.