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Article: Gains against cervical cancer // Radiation, chemotherapy cut death rate
- Article from:
- Chicago Sun-Times
- Article date:
- February 23, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1999 Chicago Sun-Times. (Hide copyright information)
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Radiation and chemotherapy in combination can reduce the death
rate from advanced cervical cancer by 30 percent to 50 percent
compared to the use of radiation alone, the National Cancer Institute
said Monday in a rare letter sent to thousands of physicians who
treat cancer.
About 12,800 women will contract cervical cancer this year and
about 4,800 will die from it. The current standard of therapy is
surgery followed by radiation if the tumor has spread locally, or
chemotherapy alone if it has metastasized throughout the body.
The institute's recommendation that radiation and chemotherapy
be used concurrently - the first change in cervical cancer therapy in
20 years - arises from five ...