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CancerQuest > Introduction to Patient Information > An Introduction to Cancer Treatments > Introduction to Radiation Therapy > The Future of Radiation Therapy

The Future of Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy is an active area of research. One of the key objectives is the design of treatments that are more selective in their effects, damaging cancer cells and sparing normal cells. We will look at one current treatment being studied; Radiogenic therapy and Equivalent Uniform Dose(EUD) in conjunction with Intensity Modulated  Radiation Therapy(IMRT).

Radiogenic therapy has been proposed as a method of using radiation technology to induce the formation of cytotoxic (cell killing) agents within cancer cells.⁽¹⁾ Using lower doses of radiation with a biological agent may yield the same results as higher dose radiation alone, but with reduced toxicity. There are three groups of radiogenic therapy:

1. Stimulation by radiation to directly or indirectly produce cytotoxic agents. The objective of this technique is to control genes with a radiation-inducible promoter so that they can produce cytotoxic proteins or enzymes that can then activate a drug. The activated form of the drug will kill the cancer cells.
2. Auger-emitting radio-labeled molecules. These therapies can control cancer by delivering targeted radiation to specific receptor bearing cells. Auger electrons are emitted by radioactive isotopes (Iodine-125 or Indium-111). The electrons have very short ranges and therefore have the potential to be delivered to specific sets of target cells, sparing healthy cells.
3. Radiation-induced genes that produce a protein that can be targeted by a cytotoxic agent.

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Equivalent Uniform Dose (EUD) has been proposed as an objective function of IMRT. Researchers have found that there may be just as much therapeutic benefit to administering consistent, lower-dose radiation to tumors than by varying doses dependent on the volume of the treatment field.⁽²⁾ Whereas IMRT varies the amount of radiation targeted at specific regions, EUD distributes equal intensities with the same efficacy, but without the same levels of toxicity.

References for this page:

1. Kaminski JM, Kaminski RJ, Dicker AP, Urbain JLC. "Defining a future role for radiogenic therapy." Cancer Treatment Reviews (2001). 27: 289-94. [PUBMED]
2. Wu Q, Mohan R, Niemeirko A, Schmidt UR. "Optimization of intensity-modulated radiotherapy plans based on the equivalent uniform dose." International Journal of Radiation Oncology: Biology and Physics (2002). 52: 224-35. [PUBMED]