Pelvic radiation therapy: Between delight and disaster

In the last few decades radiotherapy was established as one of the best and most widely used treatmentmodalities for certain tumours. Unfortunately that came with a price. As more people with cancer survive longer an ever increasing number of patients are living with the complications of radiotherap...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWorld journal of gastrointestinal surgery Vol. 7; no. 11; pp. 279 - 288
Main Author Morris, Kirsten AL
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Baishideng Publishing Group Inc 27.11.2015
Subjects
Pelvic
radiotherapy;Radiation;Toxicity
Toxicity
Radiation
Pelvic radiotherapy
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Summary:In the last few decades radiotherapy was established as one of the best and most widely used treatmentmodalities for certain tumours. Unfortunately that came with a price. As more people with cancer survive longer an ever increasing number of patients are living with the complications of radiotherapy and have become, in certain cases, difficult to manage. Pelvic radiation disease(PRD) can result from ionising radiationinduced damage to surrounding non-cancerous tissues resulting in disruption of normal physiological functions and symptoms such as diarrhoea, tenesmus, incontinence and rectal bleeding. The burden of PRDrelated symptoms, which impact on a patient’s quality of life, has been under appreciated and sub-optimally managed. This article serves to promote awareness of PRD and the vast potential there is to improve current service provision and research activities.
Bibliography:Pelvic radiotherapy;Radiation;Toxicity
In the last few decades radiotherapy was established as one of the best and most widely used treatmentmodalities for certain tumours. Unfortunately that came with a price. As more people with cancer survive longer an ever increasing number of patients are living with the complications of radiotherapy and have become, in certain cases, difficult to manage. Pelvic radiation disease(PRD) can result from ionising radiationinduced damage to surrounding non-cancerous tissues resulting in disruption of normal physiological functions and symptoms such as diarrhoea, tenesmus, incontinence and rectal bleeding. The burden of PRDrelated symptoms, which impact on a patient’s quality of life, has been under appreciated and sub-optimally managed. This article serves to promote awareness of PRD and the vast potential there is to improve current service provision and research activities.
Kirsten AL Morris;Najib Y Haboubi;University of Manchester Medical School;Department of Histopathology, University Hospital of South Manchester
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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Author contributions: Morris KAL contributed to this work by reviewing the literature and writing the manuscript; Haboubi NY designed the aim of the editorial and edited the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Najib Y Haboubi, MBChB, FRCS, FRCP, FRCPath, DPath, Professor of Health Sciences, Liver and Gastrointestinal Pathology, Consultant Histopathologist, Department of Histopathology, University Hospital of South Manchester, Clinical Sciences Building, Southmoore Rd, Manchester M23 9LT, United Kingdom. najib.haboubi@uhsm.nhs.uk
Telephone: +44-161-2912143
ISSN:1948-9366
1948-9366
DOI:10.4240/wjgs.v7.i11.279