Varian backs radiosurgery vs. traditional surgery study
August 20, 2012
by Brendon Nafziger, DOTmed News Associate Editor
Varian Medical Systems said last week it's contributing funds to help with patient accrual efforts for a National Cancer Institute-sponsored, multi-center study comparing radiosurgery against the knife-based kind for high-risk patients with early-stage lung cancer.
A Varian spokeswoman told DOTmed News the Sunnyvale, Calif-based company will kick in some funds and provide other help to support the study's goal of accruing 420 patients over a five-year period. As of June, 45 centers had qualified to participate in the phase III trial, the company said.
The NCI-financed project is being run by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a one-year-old collaboration among three cancer research organizations: the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, Cancer and Leukemia Group B and North Central Cancer Treatment Group.
Formally known as ACOSOG Z4099/RTOG 1021, the study seeks to compare whole-body stereotactic radiosurgery, which uses higher doses of radiation in fewer fractions, against sublobar resection, the surgical removal of part of the lobe of the lung, for high-risk patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose cancer is operable.
"To date, there have not been any prospective, randomized trials to compare the efficacy and toxicity of surgery to radiosurgery for high-risk operable early-stage lung cancer patients," Kolleen Kennedy, president of Varian's oncology systems business, said in a statement. "We anticipate that this trial could yield very useful information for making treatment decisions about these types of cases."
According to a "talking points" document hosted on ACOSOG's website, an earlier study involving radiosurgery performed on patients with medically inoperable early-stage lung cancer achieved 56 percent survival rates after three years, double the reported rates for conventional radiation therapy. The researchers are hoping for higher survival rates in the high-risk operable population involved in the current study.
Varian makes the TrueBeam STx and the Trilogy Tx radiosurgery devices.
A Varian spokeswoman told DOTmed News the Sunnyvale, Calif-based company will kick in some funds and provide other help to support the study's goal of accruing 420 patients over a five-year period. As of June, 45 centers had qualified to participate in the phase III trial, the company said.
The NCI-financed project is being run by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a one-year-old collaboration among three cancer research organizations: the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, Cancer and Leukemia Group B and North Central Cancer Treatment Group.
Formally known as ACOSOG Z4099/RTOG 1021, the study seeks to compare whole-body stereotactic radiosurgery, which uses higher doses of radiation in fewer fractions, against sublobar resection, the surgical removal of part of the lobe of the lung, for high-risk patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose cancer is operable.
"To date, there have not been any prospective, randomized trials to compare the efficacy and toxicity of surgery to radiosurgery for high-risk operable early-stage lung cancer patients," Kolleen Kennedy, president of Varian's oncology systems business, said in a statement. "We anticipate that this trial could yield very useful information for making treatment decisions about these types of cases."
According to a "talking points" document hosted on ACOSOG's website, an earlier study involving radiosurgery performed on patients with medically inoperable early-stage lung cancer achieved 56 percent survival rates after three years, double the reported rates for conventional radiation therapy. The researchers are hoping for higher survival rates in the high-risk operable population involved in the current study.
Varian makes the TrueBeam STx and the Trilogy Tx radiosurgery devices.