Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Some with lung cancer get unhelpful radiation

Some with lung cancer get unhelpful radiation
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Older adults who have surgery for a particular type of lung cancer often have radiation therapy afterward. But a new study suggests that the radiation typically does nothing to extend their lives. The findings, which appear in the journal Cancer, highlight the overall issue of "overtreatment" in medicine -- that is, giving patients tests and treatments that lack strong evidence of a benefit. In this case, researchers looked at government data on elderly Americans treated for a particular stage and type of non-small cell lung cancer. ...
Source: news.yahoo.com