What are the clinical applications of Radiation therapy?
Radiation therapy(RT) is used as a treatment alone, or along with other treatments.
1. When Radiation therapy(RT) is used alone:
2. Prophylaxis or preventive therapy:
RT is used in cases of
Radiation therapy(RT) is used as a treatment alone, or along with other treatments.
1. When Radiation therapy(RT) is used alone:
- Treatment may comprise of external beam therapy alone, brachytherapy alone, or a combination of the two.
- RT is still used in early-stage head and neck as well as gynecologic tumors.
- Only RT or definitive RT can also give better long-term functional outcome than surgery in some cases.
- Some researches show that RT can show identical tumor control rates with less long-term side effects compared to radical surgery in women with cervical cancer.
- Another example would be early stage Hodgkin’s disease which is commonly treated with RT.
- We may think that the elderly patients are at higher risk for short term(acute) and long term (chronic) RT side effects. However,many researchers have shown that age per se is not associated with increased toxicity because of RT.
- It's the comorbidities present in the elderly which may put them at increased risk.
- Hence, RT alone is also a treatment choice in the elderly patients.
2. Prophylaxis or preventive therapy:
- This is done to prevent the spread to cancer in the places where it is likely to happen after the primary site.
- Usually given to regional lymph nodes which are clinically not involved yet.
- An example would be RT given to liver in case of advanced Hodgkin's disease and pancreatic cancer.
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| Bone metastasis |
- As mentioned previously in Radiation Oncology: an introduction, we know that RT is used extensively as a palliative treatment when cure is not possible.It is used for both local and metastasized cancer.
- This has shown pain relief in numerous patients.
- Rapid schedules of RT are indicated for patients with long-bone tumor sites which are not near vital organs.
- Large-field radiation (hemibody irradiation) is indicated for patients with wide spread bone metastasis.
- Whole brain RT is given for patients with cerebral metastasis.
- Palliative RT is also given in case of spinal cord compression,orbital metastases, liver metastases,carcinomatous meningitis, ovarian cancer and locally advanced lung cancer.
- In case of bronchial obstruction, biliary obstruction and esophageal obstructions, Brachytherapy is used for palliative RT.
RT is used in cases of
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| Keloid treated with RT |
- Keloids or over-growing scars
- Hemangiomas or benign tumors of endothelial cells in the blood vessels
- Pterygium or Surfer's eye which is an abnormal growth on the eye
- Desmoids or tumors arising from fibroblasts which are tendon-like
- Macular degeneration which causes loss of vision
- Heterotrophic bone prophylaxis after arthroplasty
- Renal and cardiac transplant rejection
- Also, for prevention of re-stenosis in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty
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