Abstract
In non-curable metastatic disease, locoregional oncological treatment may often be indicated – mostly to improve or prevent tumor-related symptoms, with surgical interventions being restricted to life-threatening situations such as massive bleeding or gastrointestinal stenosis, to major bone destructions, or to increasing neurological symptoms. In particular, radiotherapy (RT) is an effective and safe treatment modality to alleviate the patients’ symptoms. In the case of oligometastases, the remaining life span may even be prolonged, which may include potential cure for some few patients.
With increasing precision of RT planning and administration, acute side effects are rare, even with concomitant systemic treatment. In most patients, the duration of the RT series can be limited to 2 weeks at most, with only a few daily sessions in patients with specific conditions. As in the curative setting, modern RT techniques such as IMRT, IGRT, BT, and possibly hyperthermia should also be used in the palliative setting. When these principles are followed, radiotherapy is expected to be a valuable treatment modality in many cancer patients with non-curable malignant diseases.
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Hess, C.F., Hille, A., Wolff, H.A. (2015). Radiation Therapy in Patients with Non-curable Cancer. In: Alt-Epping, B., Nauck, F. (eds) Palliative Care in Oncology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46202-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46202-7_6
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