Patients with early stage, non-small cell lung cancer who are not able to undergo surgery, now have a highly effective treatment option. Physicians say that option, radical stereotactic radiosurgery performed with CyberKnife, leads to a 100 percent overall survival after three
years in patients with good lung function before treatment. These results were presented today at the annual CHEST meeting in San Diego.

For patients with small tumors characterized as early-stage disease, surgical removal of the affected lobe (lobectomy) is the standard of care. However, surgery is sometimes not an option because of other pre-existing medical conditions such as emphysema or heart disease.

Twenty-four patients were treated as part of the study. Each patient's "forced expiratory volume in 1 second" or FEV1 was measured. At an average follow up of 36 months, the overall survival for all patients was 79 percent with five deaths occurring due to progressive lung dysfunction. For patients with a better FEV1, survival was 100 percent.

"Our goal has been to find a reasonable option for patients who don't want or can't tolerate surgery," says the study's lead author, Brian T. Collins, MD, a radiation oncologist with the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital. "What we discovered is a very promising option that may be relevant for other stage one patients as well. More follow up with these patients is planned to see how they progress five years after treatment."

"These results are important because lung cancer is typically the result of long term smoking which causes significant health problems like emphysema. For these patients traditional lung surgery can be too risky because of their other health issues. This study shows that
CyberKnife is a viable and promising option for patients to consider when their lung tumor has not spread to the lymph nodes or to distant parts of the body and surgery is too high-risk," explains Collins.

Citation: Research Presented At 2009 Annual CHEST meeting in San Diego