Adding radiotherapy keeps advanced lung cancer still for five months longer

Dr Fiona McDonald and her team at The Royal Marsden in London asked a simple question: for people whose lung cancer has spread to just a few places, what if you treat every visible spot, not just the main tumour? In the SARON trial of 140 patients, adding high-dose radiotherapy to standard treatment kept the cancer from growing for 13.9 months on average, against 8.9 months without it — a 56% improvement. Tumours kept growing in only 13% of the radiotherapy group, compared with 39.5% on standard care alone. For families, those extra months are precious time together.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: tech innovation