On Friday 9 March, Professor Marta Scorsetti, Head of Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery at Humanitas, led a webinar on body stereotactic radiotherapy in oligometastatic patients.
Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) is a non-invasive radiotherapy technique that uses a high dose of radiation directed at the tumor to cause necrosis, while saving surrounding healthy tissues. An oligometastatic disease is when metastatic lesions are limited in number (from 1 to 5) and location; this is characterized by a less aggressive biological behavior compared to the widespread metastatic disease and therefore is associated with a better prognosis.
The webinar, an online lecture distributed on a specific platform on the web, was organized by the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society (ISRS) and was aimed at specialists around the world who want to deepen their knowledge of the use of stereotactic radiotherapy in oligometastatic patients.
Stereotactic radiotherapy to destroy metastases
“Metastatic disease represents one of the latest new challenges for stereotactic radiotherapy; this method of treatment is also important in primary tumors, but in the last ten years, also thanks to technical improvement, it has allowed a more aggressive approach in the treatment of metastatic patients. In addition to traditional pharmacological therapy and chemotherapy, first-class treatments, stereotactic radiotherapy or other local ablative treatments have been developed with the aim of destroying tumor metastases.
This approach has a positive impact on the survival of patients, especially if well selected; it allows the patient periods of so-called drug holiday, or suspension of drug therapy; and it gives hope for a possible recovery or long-term survival,” explained Professor Scorsetti.
