Radiotherapy Can Cut Bowel Cancer Treatment Time

Modulated radiotherapy can cut treatment time for cancer of the rectum without increasing toxicity.

Application of modulated radiotherapy in the treatment of bowel cancer can enhance the results obtained by means of other conventional therapies. The technique has managed to apply the radiation in a way most adapted to the tumoral volume and risk areas, while minimising irradiation to healthy tissue. This radiotherapy procedure involves the administration of higher daily doses of radiation but with a total dose equivalent to conventional ones. In this way the treatment time is cut by 30%, without a rise in side effects and with very high rates of pathological response.

These were the results of the study undertaken by a team of doctors at the University Hospital of Navarra, recently published in the specialist scientific journal, "International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics" of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiotherapy and Oncology. Involved in the research was a medical team from the area of digestive system tumours, led by Doctor Jos