Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy, 3-Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy, or Proton Beam Radiotherapy Analysis for Second Cancer Diagnosis Risk

Release Date: 05-Aug-2020

The study follows evaluating the risk of second cancer diagnosis after the primary treatment which was followed by the use of proton beam radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy and 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy. It was found that the risk of second cancer diagnosis was lesser with respect to proton beam radiotherapy when compared with the other therapies such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and 3-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT).

The results obtained through the study concluded that the absolute benefits received may be small because of the rarity of the second cancers. The researcher working on the same were not able to find the evidence that supports how the use of IMRT was able to give rise to more second cancer than the 3DCRT. To follow up with the same, the researchers identified the patients with first cancer diagnosis for cancer who received the following treatment- 3DCRT, IMRT, or PBRT. Patients having lymphoma, lung, prostate, breast, bone/soft tissue, or brain/central nervous system and head and neck were enrolled in the study.

Through the course of the study the researchers were not able to find a differentce between 3DCRT and IMRT. But it was observed that PBRT had an overall lower risk of second cancer diagnosis when compared with IMRT. The same was not only seen in the case of lung cancer, it was suggested that the most possible reason for the same would be high prevalence of smoking. The overall conclusion that was obtained from the study pointed that the results observed for every cancer type was consistent in the pooled analyses and were maintained in propensity score-matched analyses. According to the researchers working on this, future work is essential to interpret every result and lack of data regarding the cancer risk factors such as smoking and obesity is providing several disadvantages to the overall study. Potential future work is also warranted to determine the cost-effectiveness of PBRT in order to find the patients who are best suited for the treatment.