Radiation therapy for malignant disease

―Recent advance―

Abstract

Radiation therapy is one of the three major cancer treatment methods. Patients could achieve tumor control with possible organ and its functional preservation. The treatment procedure is minimally invasive, and can be delivered for most cancer patients without deteriorating the quality of life. The role of radiation therapy for various malignant diseases is evolving in Japan, and the number of patients who receive radiation therapy has become three times as much as compared with 20 years ago. A clinically used dose-fractionation schedule is based on radiobiological consideration. Recently, high precision radiation therapy techniques such as image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image-guided brachytherapy (IGBT) have been introduced into clinical practice supported by technological innovation in diagnostic radiology. In this review, the outlook of modern radiation therapy including a general perspective, biological basis of fractionation, up-to-date technologies such as IGRT and IMRT are described.