Radiotherapy

Proton beam therapy is a type of radiotherapy that employs a high energy beam of protons rather than high energy X-rays to deliver a dose of radiotherapy for patients with cancer.1 The UK has been involved in the development of proton beam therapy; a specialist eye service at Clatterbridge, Merseyside, UK, was the first hospital-based […]

The term hyperfractionated radiotherapy (HFR) is used when radiotherapy is delivered in doses below 1.8-2.0 Gy per fraction. The rationale for doing so can be found in the differences in intrinsic radiosensitivity between tumours and late responding normal tissues. A small dose per fraction will tend to increase the therapeutic ratio between tumour and critical […]

Over the past several decades, two paradigms have emerged in the preoperative treatment of rectal cancer: a short course of radiation therapy (RT) often utilized in centers across Northern Europe and longcourse chemoradiation (CRT) in other parts of Europe and the US. The short-course technique was validated by randomized trials comparing this technique to surgery […]

The majority of patients undergoing radiation therapy for head and neck (HN) cancer will develop oral mucositis, which is a clinical syndrome characterized by erythema, ulcerations, and odynophagia (see Table 1). It is almost universal and more severe among patients with oral cavity, oropharynx, and nasopharynx primaries.^1–3 Although therapeutic ratio and outcomes are improved by […]

Despite advances in multimodality treatment, the 5-year survival rate of patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) does not exceed 40–50% and survival rates for recurrent or metastatic disease (R/M) remain dismal.^1,2 Low survival rates in combination with significant toxicities caused by current treatment strategies used in HNSCC emphasise the necessity […]

Delineation of contours remains the one part of radiotherapy that is completely manual in the majority of centres and therefore the potential for time-saving is huge,¹ being estimated to range from 23 %² to 41 %.³ One of the additional benefits of auto-contouring is the reduction in interobserver variation, which in general is not quantified […]

Over the past several decades, two paradigms have emerged in the preoperative treatment of rectal cancer: a short course of radiation therapy (RT) often utilized in centers across Northern Europe and longcourse chemoradiation (CRT) in other parts of Europe and the US. The short-course technique was validated by randomized trials comparing this technique to surgery […]

In patients with locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC), not involving the mesorectal fascia (MRF), surgery with total mesorectal excision (TME) is the standard of care. Prior to the TME era, high rates of local recurrence (LR) were observed after radical surgery, and 10–40 % of patients required a permanent stoma, even for tumours arising in […]

Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer and the sixth leading cause of cancer death among men worldwide with an estimated 899,000 new cases and 258,000 new deaths in 2008.¹ Risk-stratification systems are used to assist with treatment selection, ensuring prognostic uniformity in clinical trials, and in the evaluation of treatment outcomes. […]