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Stereotactic radiotherapy is a very precise method of radiotherapy that uses fewer doses of radiation than conventional radiotherapy. In this study of 37 patients with spread of their cancer (metastases) at a limited number of places in the body, the researchers looked at how stereotactic radiotherapy affected the outcomes of patients on tyrosine kinase inhibitors, such as sunitinib, pazopanib or axitinib.
Before entering the study, the average duration of treatment with TKIs was 18.6 months. After one year, 93% of tumours were controlled with stereotactic radiotherapy, and the average time to when the treatment stopped working and the cancer started growing again (progression-free survival) after stereotactic radiotherapy was 9.3 months. The average time to change in drug treatment was 12.6 months. No serious or life-threatening side effects were reported with stereotactic radiotherapy.
These findings suggest that stereotactic radiotherapy can significantly delay the need to change drug treatment for patients with metastatic RCC that has spread to a few sites in the body.