New Study Shows Rectal Cancer Patients Can Avoid Radiation with Similar Success

A large clinical trial found rectal cancer patients had similar outcomes with or without radiation therapy.
The results could allow over 10,000 US patients annually to forgo radiation treatment and the serious side effects that come with it.
The trial is part of a new trend to determine if parts of successful treatments can be removed to improve patient quality of life.
The study focused on patients whose tumors had spread to lymph nodes or tissues near the bowel but not other organs.
Patients who had chemotherapy without radiation initially had more nausea, vomiting and fatigue but after a year the radiation group suffered more from fatigue, sexual problems and nerve pain.