
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991                   TAG: 9103140027
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short

TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES RECTAL CANCER OUTLOOK

Adding chemotherapy to standard radiation treatment can reduce the death rate by about one-third in people with advanced rectal cancer, according to a study.

About 45,500 cases of rectal cancer are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year, and specialists said that about 20,000 of these people will have advanced disease who could benefit from the combination approach.

The latest findings, based on a study of 204 cancer patients, was published in today's New England Journal of Medicine. A panel of experts assembled by the National Institutes of Health took the data into consideration last year when it recommended combination therapy in colon and rectal cancer.

- Associated Press

by CNB