{"id":3550,"date":"2026-11-03T17:24:30","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T17:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/?p=3550"},"modified":"2026-11-03T17:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T17:24:30","slug":"new-study-shows-adding-radiation-therapy-improves-lung-cancer-treatment-outcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/new-study-shows-adding-radiation-therapy-improves-lung-cancer-treatment-outcomes\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Shows Adding Radiation Therapy Improves Lung Cancer Treatment Outcomes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent medical study presented at the ESMO Congress 2026 has found that adding radiation therapy to the standard treatment for certain lung cancer<\/a> patients can help them live longer without their cancer getting worse. The study, called the SARON trial and funded by Cancer Research UK, showed that patients with oligometastatic non-small cell lung cancer who received both standard treatment and radiation therapy stayed cancer-free for an average of 13.9 months. This is 5 months longer than patients who only received the standard treatment, who stayed cancer-free for an average of 8.9 months\u2014a 56% improvement. Importantly, the addition of radiation therapy did not negatively affect the patients’ quality of life.<\/p>\n

Dr. Fiona McDonald, a lung cancer specialis<\/a>t and the lead researcher of the SARON trial, explained that before this study, there wasn\u2019t much clear evidence showing whether adding radiation therapy to standard treatment would help patients with this type of lung cancer. She said, ‘The SARON trial now provides strong evidence that adding radiation therapy can significantly improve how long patients live without their cancer growing, without making them feel worse overall.’<\/p>\n

The trial included 140 patients from 19 hospitals across the UK. All patients had between one and five areas where the cancer had spread (metastases), but in no more than three different organs. Half of the patients received the standard treatment alone, while the other half received the standard treatment plus radiation therapy targeting all known cancer sites. In some cases, a high-precision radiation therapy called stereotactic ablative radiotherapy was used.<\/p>\n

After following the patients for an average of over 3 years, the results showed that only 13% of patients who received radiation therapy had their cancer grow at the original sites within the first year, compared to nearly 40% of patients who only received the standard treatment. The overall survival time was similar between both groups, with patients living about 31 months on average with radiation therapy and 28 months without it. The radiation therapy was also well-tolerated, meaning it did not cause major side effects that would reduce the patients’ quality of life.<\/p>\n

Julie Moran, a 69-year-old retired heart<\/a> and lung technician from Buckinghamshire, was one of the patients in the trial. She was diagnosed with oligometastatic lung cancer after her symptoms from long COVID<\/a> led her doctors to investigate further. She said, ‘In a way, COVID saved my life. Without those long COVID symptoms, my lung cancer might not have been found so early.’ Moran, who spent her career working with heart and lung patients, added, ‘It was strange to be diagnosed with lung cancer myself. Even though I\u2019ve seen countless scans in my career, seeing my own results was shocking and made the diagnosis very real.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent medical study presented at the ESMO Congress 2026 has found that adding radiation therapy to the standard treatment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pharmaceutical-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3558,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions\/3558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allesleypharmacy.co.uk\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}