Radiotherapy clinical studies

Leahy MF, Seymour JF, Hicks RJ, Turner JH. 2006. Multicenter phase II clinical study of Iodine-13 1-Rituximab radiotherapy in relapsed or refractory indolent non-Hodgkin s lymphoma. J Clin Oncol. 24 4418-4425. 

Clinical studies on breast cancer patients have disclosed that an increased p53 protein expression or mutant p53 seem to be associated with an improved effect by adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy (12,15). The latter clinical findings are partly supported by radiotherapy studies on lymphoblastoid human cell lines (46). In this study radiation was capable of inducing apoptosis at an equivalent frequency in both mutant and wild-type p53, but with delayed kinetics (46). 

It is noteworthy that there have been hints from clinical studies (activity in lung cancer patients previously treated with radiotherapy) that a combination of radiotherapy with polymer conjugates leads to enhanced tumor targeting and improved antitumor activity. Radiotherapy, directly or indirectly, may induce an increase in vascular permeability, so exploration of clinical protocols combining HPMA copol3uner conjugates with radiotherapy is an important option to explore. 

Because of the HIF-la-dependent Warburg effect observed in tumors, inhibition of the glycolytic pathway, which has been proposed in the literature for decades [221], is an attractive therapeutic approach. Clinical studies in glioma patients have shown that administration of 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) was well tolerated in combination with radiotherapy [222]. In animal models, some groups have reported a synergy of 2DG with chemotherapy or radiation and... 

In a large variety of advanced carcinomas curative radiotherapy is combined with chemotherapy. Experimental observations and some clinical studies indicate that chemotherapy as a single modality can induce accelerated repopulation in tumours (reviewed in Davis and Tannock 2000 Kim and Tannock 2005). Induced repopulation by induction chemotherapy may possibly explain the inferior results of induction chemotherapy before radiotherapy compared with concurrent chemo-radiation in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (Fournel et al. 2005 Furuse et al. 1999 Zatloukal et al. 2004). 

Marion Cottier and collaborators summarized in their chapter a set of observations that lead to the definition of NO as radiosensitizer molecule in bacteria and mammalian tumor cells. The effect of NO in the sensitization of tumor cell to radiotherapy has been demonstrated in preclinical and clinical studies. These effects can be either direct, by the cellular induction or generation of NO by the target tissue (NOS-mediated induction or activation) as revealed by Peter Siesjo in his chapter, or indirect by the use of NO-releasing compounds such as NO donors extensively discussed in these chapters. 

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