What is the Success Rate of Radiation Therapy for Cancer

Cancer has been a threat to the human race. However, surgery and chemotherapy are some of the tools used to treat it. But what is the success rate of radiation therapy? Radiation therapy has a 90-95% success rate in stage I, 85-90% success rate in stage II, and a 75-80% success rate in stage III.

In this guide, you’ll discover what radiation therapy is, why people use radiation therapy, types of radiation therapy, how to calculate the success rate of radiation therapy, and how to analyze the success rate for radiation therapy in Power BI.

Table of Contents:

1. What is Radiation Therapy?
2. Why Do People Use Radiation Therapy?
3. What are the Types of Radiation Therapy?
4. How to Calculate the Success Rate of Radiation Therapy?
5. How to Analyze the Success Rate for Radiation Therapy in Power BI?
6. What are the Best Practices for Calculating Radiotherapy Success Rate?
7. Wrap Up

First…

What is Radiation Therapy?

With radiation therapy, carefully targeted and regulated doses of electromagnetic waves (or high-energy radiation) are used to kill cancer cells.

Radiation causes cancer cells to die immediately after treatment. However, there are cases where the cancer cells become incapacitated due to radiation-induced damage to the cancer cell’s DNA and chromosomes.

Radiation therapy also helps in reducing the size of some tumors. It damages normal cells in the treated areas, but these cells can be repaired from this radiation exposure.

Why Do People Use Radiation Therapy?

Here are the major reasons why people use radiation therapy.

1. To Cure Cancer: Radiation treatment can serve as the primary treatment for eradicating cancer. It’s effective for certain types of cancer like Hodgkin Lymphoma, early-stage prostate cancer, and head and neck cancers.
2. To Control Cancer Growth: Radiation therapy is used in shrinking cancer before surgery. This increases the success rate of the surgery and makes it easy to remove the cancer. It’s also used to target the remaining cancer cells after surgery, and that reduces the risk of recurrence.
3. To Relieve Symptoms (Palliative Care): Radiation therapy can relieve caused by the presence of cancer in the bones and other organs. It can also help in alleviating symptoms like difficulty swallowing, breathing problems, and bleeding.
4. Combination with Other Treatments: Radiation therapy, coupled with chemotherapy enhances the effectiveness of both treatments. It can also be combined with immunotherapy to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer.
5. Localized Treatment: Radiation therapy can be used to target cancerous areas, and that minimizes damage to surrounding healthy tissues. And there are cases like early-stage laryngeal cancer where radiation therapy can help in treating the disease without the actual removal of the organ.
6. Recurrence Prevention: After the removal of the primary tumor, radiation therapy can be used to destroy the microscopic residual cancer cells. All these reduce the chances of recurrence.

What are the Types of Radiation Therapy?

• External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT): It involves the delivery of high-energy radiation beams from outside the body. The 3D Conformal Radiation Therapy (3D-CRT) is used in shaping radiation beams to match the tumor’s contours. Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) adjusts radiation intensity across multiple beams, and that optimizes dose distribution and sparing healthy tissues. Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) delivers highly focused radiation to small tumors, and that can be done in a few sessions.
• Internal Radiation Therapy (Brachytherapy): It involves the placement of radioactive sources directly into (or near) the tumor. Needles are used to implant radioactive seeds within the tumors. With this technique, high doses of radiation are delivered directly to the cancerous tissues, and that reduces exposure to surrounding healthy organs.
• Systemic Radiation Therapy: Here, radioactive substances are delivered through the bloodstream to target cancer cells throughout the body. This technique is the best fit for cancers like thyroid cancer (radioactive iodine therapy) or some types of metastatic cancers that can be treated with targeted radioactive drugs.

How to Calculate the Success Rate of Radiation Therapy?

The general approach to calculating the success rate of radiation therapy includes:

Define Treatment Goals

You need to figure out what makes a successful outcome for a specific type of cancer that’s being treated. That could be complete tumor regression, symptom control, or long-term remission.

Outcome Measures

Figure out measurable outcomes like:

• Local Control Rate: It shows the percentage of patients whose tumors do not grow (or return) within the treated area.
• Overall Survival Rate: It shows the percentage of patients who survive for a specified period after treatment.
• Progression-Free Survival: It’s the period during which the disease does not progress.
• Quality of Life: It’s the patient-reported outcomes related to symptoms, well-being, and function.

Collect Data

These are data relating to the patient demographics, treatment specifics, cancer characteristics, and follow-up outcomes.

Calculate Success Rates

• Local Control Rate: You’ll have to divide the number of patients with no local recurrence by the total number treated and multiply by 100.
• Overall Survival Rate: Calculate the percentage of patients alive at a specific time point after treatment.
• Progression-Free Survival: Determine the median time until disease progression or recurrence.
• Quality of Life: Assess improvements or maintenance in patient-reported quality-of-life scores.

Consider Factors Affecting Success

You have to account for factors influencing outcomes like patient age, treatment adherence, cancer stage, and overall health.

Interpret and Report Findings

Showcase the success rates with appropriate context and discuss limitations like biases in data collection or follow-up duration.

How to Analyze the Success Rate for Radiation Therapy in Power BI?

Stage 1: Logging in to Power BI

• Log in to Power BI.
• Enter your email address and click the “Submit” button.

• You are redirected to your Microsoft account.
• Enter your password and click “Sign in“.

• You can choose whether to stay signed in.

• Once done, the Power BI home screen will open.

Stage 2: Creating a Data Set and Selecting the Data Set to Use in Your Chart

• Go to the left-side menu and click the “Create” button.
• Select “Paste or manually enter data“.

• We’ll use the sample data below for this example.

Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6	Level 7	Level 8	Numbers
Diagnosis	Initial Consultation	Simulation	Treatment Plan	EBRT				80
Diagnosis	Initial Consultation	Simulation	Treatment Plan	Brachytherapy				20
				Brachytherapy	Post-Treatment Visit			20
				Brachytherapy	Side Effects Management			20
				EBRT	Post-Treatment Visit			80
				EBRT	Side Effects Management			80
					Post-Treatment Visit	Long-Term Monitoring		100
						Long-Term Monitoring	Healthy Lifestyle Support	100

• Paste the data table into the “Power Query” window. After that, choose the “Create a semantic model only” option.

• Navigate to the left-side menu, and click the “Data Hub” option. Power BI will populate the data set list. If there is no data set, you’ll see an error message.
• Click “Create report.”

• Click “Get more visuals.”

• Search for “ChartExpo” and select “Sankey Chart.”

• Click “Add.”

• After that, you’ll see “Sankey Chart” in the visuals list.

• Click “License Settings” and add the key.

• After adding the key, you’ll see the Sankey Chart. There’s the option of adding the header text on the top of the chart.

• You can disable the percentage sign with values.

• Here’s how to add the color of all nodes.

• Here’s what the final image of the Sankey Chart looks like.

Insights:

The data shows the patient’s treatment pathways. 80% of patients undergo External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT), while 20% opt for Brachytherapy. Both involve post-treatment visits and side effects management. Healthy lifestyle support and long-term monitoring are also past of the patient’s post-treatment.

What are the Best Practices for Calculating Radiotherapy Success Rate?

1. Define Clear Treatment Goals: Identify what constitutes success. It could be survival or tumor regression.
2. Select Relevant Outcome Measures: Choose metrics aligned with treatment goals. These metrics could be overall survival or local control.
3. Collect Comprehensive Data: Gather detailed patient and treatment information.
4. Ensure Adequate Follow-Up: Come up with sufficient time for outcomes to manifest.
5. Consider Confounding Factors: Account for patient and treatment variables that can influence outcomes.

FAQs

What determines the number of radiation treatments?

The number of radiation treatments is determined by factors like cancer type, stage, treatment goals, location, and individual patient factors like overall patient health and tolerance to radiation.

What are the statistics of radiation therapy?

Statistics of radiation therapy include success rates like survival rates and local control. And that varies with cancer type, stage, and treatment approach. This will, in turn, impact the treatment’s effectiveness and outcomes.

What is the radiation treatment chart?

Also known as a treatment plan, a radiation treatment chart outlines the dosage, schedule, and target areas of radiation therapy sessions based on individualized patient needs and treatment goals.

Wrap Up

Radiation therapy is a technique where high-energy radiation is used in treating cancer. That’s accomplished by damaging the DNA in cancer cells. It’s used for curing, controlling, and palliating cancer.

The common types of radiation therapy are External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT), and brachytherapy. The cancer success rate varies, and it’s dependent on the cancer stage and type.

People use radiation therapy for a plethora of reasons including targeting metastases. With radiation therapy, you can treat cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. And that helps in controlling disease progression and providing relief from symptoms. Radiation therapy is also a non-surgical option for patients who are eligible for surgery due to their health conditions, preferences, and age.

Analyzing data that comes with radiation therapy involves the use of tools like the ChartExpo. The tool helps in showcasing patient treatment pathways, including post-treatment visits and side effects management.