Dear Radiation Oncology Insider,
Prostate cancer continues to grab headlines, and things are no different in this edition of the Radiation Oncology Insider.
The American Cancer Society reports that one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, there will be 86,300 new cases diagnosed in 2008, and approximately 28,700 men will die of this disease. The good news is that more than 2 million prostate cancer patients are alive today, and the odds are that only one in 35 will die.
So, identifying risk and success of treatment are important topics. In this edition's Insider Exclusive, we report on work by researchers from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, who investigated the relationship between external-beam radiation therapy for prostate cancer and the development of colorectal cancer later in life. Find out why -- and why the news may not be all bad -- by clicking here.
In other Radiation Oncology Digital Community news, we report the results of a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association that looks at the use of salvage radiation therapy in patients who had radical prostatectomy procedures but showed signs of recurrence afterward. The researchers found that the technique could be most effective in patients with signs of the most aggressive cancers -- learn more by clicking here.
In other news, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) held its annual meeting in Chicago last month. Our coverage from the scene included an article on the use of PET before head and neck as well as lung cancer surgeries, and a story on research indicating that the nutritional supplement selenium does not interfere with the effectiveness of radiation therapy.
Also, leading cancer experts are concerned about how a shortfall in U.S. government funding for cancer research will affect the future development of cancer treatment technologies. You can learn more by clicking here.
Finally, I would like to introduce myself as the new editor for the Radiation Oncology Digital Community. Oncologists, physicists, and radiation therapists, as well as everyone concerned with oncology imaging and therapy -- I welcome your input regarding topics you'd like to see covered.
