How is the role of radiation in cancer treatment changing? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Many people with rectal cancer were able to forgo radiation as part of their treatment with no increased risk of recurrence, a recent trial found. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, says this is just one type of cancer where the role for radiation is changing.

Nelson: Is the role for radiation therapy evolving? The technology to deliver radiation doses with ever greater precision is improving along with the entire microprocessor industry. There's another great driver: we’re detecting cancers at an ever smaller state, cancer recurrences in an ever earlier state, which is prompting the notion that you may be able to use this radiation therapy that you can deliver in a very small number of fractions very precisely to single metastatic deposits.      :27

Nelson says it’s well worth asking about the need for radiation as part of your treatment plan and whether modifications to the protocol are appropriate based on recent studies. at Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.