Malignant radiation therapy

Radioactivity also Is used to treat certain diseases. Some cancers respond particularly well to radiation therapy. Radioactivity must be used with care, because exposure to radiation damages healthy cells and eventually causes cancer. The key to radiation therapy is that cancer cells reproduce more rapidly than normal cells, and rapidly reproducing cells are more sensitive to radiation. If concentrated doses of radiation are focused on the malignant cells, a cancer may be destroyed with minimal damage to healthy tissue. Nevertheless, radiation therapy always has unpleasant side effects, including nausea and hair loss. 

Ionizing radiation therapy is also a cause of secondary malignancies. These secondary tumors generally develop within or adjacent to the previous radiation field. These cancers often have... 

Patients with brain metastases have a poor prognosis. Untreated patients generally have a median survival of 1 month. The choice of treatment depends primarily on the status of the patient s underlying malignancy and the number and sites of brain metastases. The primary definitive treatments for brain metastases are surgery and radiation therapy. Pharmacologic modalities are... 

Prostate cancer is a malignant neoplasm that arises from the prostate gland. Prostate cancer has an indolent course localized prostate cancer is curable by surgery or radiation therapy but advanced prostate cancer is not yet curable. 

Benign tnmonrs are nsnally only a problem when they impair the fnnction of organs or canse metabolic stress. They can be removed by snrgery or radiation therapy. Malignant tnmonrs are mnch more of a problem, since the cells can escape from the primary tnmonr to other sites in the body, where they settle and develop into secondary tumours (metastases). Then, chemotherapy is the only treatment available. The process is known as metastasis. 

Hypersensitivity to polyoxyethylated castor oil (injection only see Warnings and Administration and Dosage), cyclosporine, or any component of the products Gengraf and Neoral in psoriasis or RA patients with abnormal renal function, uncontrolled hypertension, or malignancies Gengraf and A/eora/concomitantly with PUVA or DVB, methotrexate or other immunosuppressive agents, coal tar or radiation therapy in psoriasis patients. 

The regimes combining Orzel and capecitabine with radiation therapy have become the focus of increasing interest in the management of patients various malignancies including rectal, anal, locally advanced head and neck, esophageal, and pancreatic cancers. 

Table 2 Malignancies in which Fluoropyrimidines and Radiation Therapy Appear to Improve Survival ...

Malignancies in which 5-FU and Radiation Therapy Have Been Used for Organ Preservation... 

Ben-Josef E, Vaishampayan UN, Vaitkevicius VK, et al. A Single Institution Experience with Concurrent Capecitabine and Radiation Therapy in Gastrointestinal Malignancies. ASCO 2001, 1436. 

Early clinical studies clearly demonstrated that cisplatin could be administered safely and concurrently with radiation therapy (73-75). Early clinical trials that demonstrated the promise of the combination of cisplatin and radiation therapy included the treatment of brain tumors (76,77), head and neck tumors (78), malignant melanoma (79), and bladder cancer (80). Early clinical trial integrating carboplatin administration with radiation therapy was carried out in patients with locally advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (81). A hypothesis put forth by Coughlin and colleagues (81) was that the best clinical outcomes would be achieved with the combination of cisplatin and radiation therapy in tumors that were responsive to cisplatin. 

Landry JC, Harris W Yang GY, et al. Neoadjuvant treatment with GEM, cisplatin, 5-FU and accelerated hyperfractionated radiation therapy in advanced GI malignancy. Radiology 2000 217 147. 

Results with Surgery and Radiation Therapy Trials of Chemotherapeutic Agents Recursive Partitioning Analysis Specific Therapy Considerations in non-GBM Malignant Gliomas Radiation Therapy Strategies Novel Chemotherapeutic Agents Future Directions References... 

Curran WJ, Scott CB, Horton J, et al. Recursive partitioning analysis of prognostic factors in three Radiation Therapy Oncology Group malignant glioma trials. J Natl Cancer Inst 1993 85 704-710. 

Shin KH, Muller PH, Geggie PHS. Superfractionation radiation therapy in the treatment of malignant astrocytoma. Cancer 1983 52 2040-2043. 

Werner-Wasik M, Scott CB, Nelson DF, et al. Final report of a Phase I/II trial of hyperfractionated radiation therapy with carmustine for adults with supratentorial malignant gliomas Radiation Therapy Oncology Group study 83-02. Cancer 1996 77 1535-1543. 

The Role of Combined Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy in the Treatment of Gynecologic Malignancies... 

Bonner JA, Ezekiel MP, Robert F, et al. Continued response following treatment with IMC-C225, an EGFr MoAb, combined with radiation therapy in advanced head and neck malignancies. Proc Am Soc Clin Oncol 2000 19 5F (abstr). 

Radiation therapy is a very important and effective treatment modality for almost all types of malignancies. Its importance in the local control of primary or bulky cancers will even increase in the future if more effective chemotherapeutic or other systemic treatments become available to treat metastatic disease. 

Radioisotopes are also used in radiation therapy to treat cancer. The goal in radiation therapy is to kill malignant cells, while protecting healthy tissue from radiation effects. Radioisotopes such as yttrium-90, a beta emitter, may be placed directly in the tumor. Alternatively, the diseased tissue may be subjected to beams of gamma radiation. Cobalt-60 used in radiation therapy is prepared by a series of transmutations ... 

Toxicosis in animals has resulted from ingestion of boric acid or borax solutions, from topical applications of boric acid solutions to damaged skin, and from inhalation of boranes the exact mechanisms of action are not understood. Boron and its compounds are potent teratogens when applied directly to the embryo, bnt there is no evidence of mutagenicity or carcinogenicity. Boron s unique affinity for cancerons tissnes has been exploited in neutron capture radiation therapy of malignant hnman brain tnmors. 

Boron seems to have an affinity for cancerous tumors, and this property has been exploited in radiation therapy (Hamada et al. 1983 Hatanaka 1986). Boron-10 has been used in neutron capture therapy to cure malignant sarcomas implanted in the hind legs of mice, as well as spontaneous malignant melanomas in pigs (Slatkin etal. 1986). The sulfhydral borane monomer (Bi2HnSH) is used as a B-10 carrier in neutron therapy of malignant human brain tumors and seems to be most effective at 30 pg B-lO/kg tissue (Hatanaka 1986). Polyhedral boranes attached to monoclonal antibodies that are tumor specific may become useful in tumor therapy by neutron irradiation (Parry... 

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