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Improving the Quality of Life of Patients with Head and Neck Cancer by Highly Conformal Radiotherapy

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Functional Preservation and Quality of Life in Head and Neck Radiotherapy

Part of the book series: Medical Radiology ((Med Radiol Radiat Oncol))

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Efforts to improve quality of life (QOL) by highly conformal radiotherapy (RT) rely on its ability to conform the high radiation dose to the targets and partly spare organs whose damage causes long-term symptoms, which affect the QOL of survivors. The symptom that highly conformal RT sought to reduce has been xerostomia, where efforts to spare the salivary glands have been a main goal of this technology in head and neck (HN) cancer. In recent years, dysphagia has emerged as a major late sequel following treatment intensifi cation for HN cancer. Efforts to defi ne the anatomical structures whose damage by intensive chemo-RT causes dysphagia, and to assess the ability of highly conformal RT to spare these structures, have been made very recently. This chapter will describe the evolution of highly conformal RT and its utilization in studies aiming to reduce xerostomia and dysphagia, and their effect on broad aspects of QOL.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan Health System, UH B2C490, 1500 E. Medical Center Dr. SPC 5010, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Avraham Eisbruch MD

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  1. Avraham Eisbruch MD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Oncology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, 600 Highland Avenue, K4/332, Madison, WI, 53792, USA

    P. M. Harari MD

  2. Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Wisconsin Medical School, 600 Highland Avenue K4/711, Madison, WI, 53792-7375, USA

    N. P. Connor PhD

  3. Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, 44 Nøerrebrogade, Building 5, Aarhus C, DK-8000, Denmark

    C. Grau MD

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Eisbruch, A. (2009). Improving the Quality of Life of Patients with Head and Neck Cancer by Highly Conformal Radiotherapy. In: Harari, P.M., Connor, N.P., Grau, C. (eds) Functional Preservation and Quality of Life in Head and Neck Radiotherapy. Medical Radiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73232-7_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73232-7_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-73231-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-73232-7

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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