Abstract
The objective of radiation therapy is to control tumors without causing excessive normal tissue toxicity. Predictive models may be used to compute tumor control probabilities (TCP) as well as normal tissue complication probability (NTCP). Increasing the dose or volume of radiation tends to increase both values. The difference between TCP and NTCP is called the therapeutic window. Factors such as geographic miss and accelerated repopulation can decrease TCP and thus decrease the therapeutic window. The therapeutic window may be modified by combining radiation therapy with other modalities such as chemotherapy.
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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Chang, D.S., Lasley, F.D., Das, I.J., Mendonca, M.S., Dynlacht, J.R. (2014). Therapeutic Ratio. In: Basic Radiotherapy Physics and Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06841-1_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06841-1_27
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