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Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?

Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is a modern radiotherapy technique that was implemented in the mid-1990s. It allows closer shaping of dose, to target volumes, thereby sparing organs at risk (OARs). Before the IMRT-era, two-dimensional radiotherapy (2DRT) and later three-dimensional conformal...

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Autores principales: van der Veen, Julie, Nuyts, Sandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28984841
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers9100135
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author van der Veen, Julie
Nuyts, Sandra
author_facet van der Veen, Julie
Nuyts, Sandra
author_sort van der Veen, Julie
collection PubMed
description Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is a modern radiotherapy technique that was implemented in the mid-1990s. It allows closer shaping of dose, to target volumes, thereby sparing organs at risk (OARs). Before the IMRT-era, two-dimensional radiotherapy (2DRT) and later three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) were the techniques of choice, but this robust way of irradiating caused more normal tissue to receive a higher dose. Radiation of cancers in the head and neck region is complex because of close proximity to critical normal tissue and the large target volumes that need to be treated at high doses. IMRT offers an elegant solution compared with 3DCRT and surgery because it allows organ preservation and improved function preservation. In this manuscript, we review the rationales for IMRT, with an emphasis on toxicity outcomes compared with 3DCRT. We performed a review of the literature and looked at the most important randomised controlled trials comparing IMRT with 3DCRT. We conclude that IMRT is safe in regard to disease outcome, and that it allows better sparing of normal tissue, thereby causing less toxicity, resulting in a smaller impact on quality of life compared with conventional radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer.
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spelling pubmed-56640742017-11-06 Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma? van der Veen, Julie Nuyts, Sandra Cancers (Basel) Review Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) is a modern radiotherapy technique that was implemented in the mid-1990s. It allows closer shaping of dose, to target volumes, thereby sparing organs at risk (OARs). Before the IMRT-era, two-dimensional radiotherapy (2DRT) and later three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) were the techniques of choice, but this robust way of irradiating caused more normal tissue to receive a higher dose. Radiation of cancers in the head and neck region is complex because of close proximity to critical normal tissue and the large target volumes that need to be treated at high doses. IMRT offers an elegant solution compared with 3DCRT and surgery because it allows organ preservation and improved function preservation. In this manuscript, we review the rationales for IMRT, with an emphasis on toxicity outcomes compared with 3DCRT. We performed a review of the literature and looked at the most important randomised controlled trials comparing IMRT with 3DCRT. We conclude that IMRT is safe in regard to disease outcome, and that it allows better sparing of normal tissue, thereby causing less toxicity, resulting in a smaller impact on quality of life compared with conventional radiotherapy in the treatment of head and neck cancer. MDPI 2017-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5664074/ /pubmed/28984841 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers9100135 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
van der Veen, Julie
Nuyts, Sandra
Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?
title Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?
title_full Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?
title_fullStr Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?
title_full_unstemmed Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?
title_short Can Intensity-Modulated-Radiotherapy Reduce Toxicity in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma?
title_sort can intensity-modulated-radiotherapy reduce toxicity in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma?
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28984841
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers9100135
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