Locally advanced cervical cancer: Should intensity-modulated radiotherapy replace brachytherapy? - Abstract

Service de radiothérapie, institut de cancérologie Gustave-Roussy, 114, rue Édouard-Vaillant, 94805 Villejuif cedex, France.

 

Intensity-modulated conformal radiotherapy (IMRT) is booming as treatment of locally advanced cervical cancer. This technique reduces the doses delivered to organs at risk and, by analogy to the irradiation of prostate cancer, opens the door to the possibility of dose escalation to levels close or similar to those achieved by brachytherapy. To date, several studies comparing IMRT with brachytherapy have been published, often methodologically flawed, concluding sometimes that both techniques are comparable. These results should be taken with extreme caution and should not overshadow the recent advances in brachytherapy with the use of 3D imaging and optimization. Preliminary works also showed that the combination of 3D optimized brachytherapy with IMRT could improve the management of the local disease especially for lesions poorly covered by intracavitary techniques.

Article in French.

Written by:
Mazeron R, Gilmore J, Khodari W, Dumas I, Haie-Méder C.   Are you the author?

Reference: Cancer Radiother. 2011 Aug 29. Epub ahead of print.
doi: 10.1016/j.canrad.2011.07.232

PubMed Abstract
PMID: 21880534

UroToday.com Prostate Cancer Section