Open AccessTechnological advances in radiotherapy for esophageal cancer
Author(s) -
Milan Vošmik,
Jiřı́ Petera,
Igor Sirák,
Miroslav Hodek,
Petr Paluska,
Jiří Doležal,
Marcela Kopáčová
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
world journal of gastroenterology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.427
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 2219-2840
pISSN - 1007-9327
DOI - 10.3748/wjg.v16.i44.5555
Subject(s) - radiation therapy , medicine , esophageal cancer , proton therapy , modalities , radiology , radiation treatment planning , positron emission tomography , cancer , medical physics , oncology , social science , sociology
Radiotherapy with concurrent chemotherapy and surgery represent the main treatment modalities in esophageal cancer. The goal of modern radiotherapy approaches, based on recent technological advances, is to minimize post-treatment complications by improving the gross tumor volume definition (positron emission tomography-based planning), reducing interfraction motion (image-guided radiotherapy) and intrafraction motion (respiratory-gated radiotherapy), and by better dose delivery to the precisely defined planning target volume (intensity-modulated radiotherapy and proton therapy). Reduction of radiotherapy-related toxicity is fundamental to the improvement of clinical results in esophageal cancer, although the dose escalation concept is controversial.