Addressing the ECCO 11 - the European Cancer Society in Lisbon, Professor Peter Levendag quoted examples from his own department of technological advances that were of potential benefit to head and neck cancer patients - but which were not being properly exploited.

Professor Levendag, of the Dr. Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center, Department of Radiation-Oncology, Rotterdam, explained: "The increasing effort in implementing advanced technology, given the shortage of highly skilled personnel and linear accelerators, can raise the departmental workload and could ultimately lead to an increase in waiting time. This is a psychological burden to the patient and his or her relatives. It might even cause a further loss in tumor control and/ or higher morbidity - with, finally, a rise in health care costs".

The new advances include:

External beam intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has produced remarkable technological advances in radiation therapy in the treatment of particular tumours, eg, head and neck, prostate, breast, lung, rectum, and central nervous system. It reduces side effects associated with conventional radiation therapy by sparing normal surrounding tissue and can improve treatment outcome by raising the dose. IMRT uses computer-generated treatment plans to deliver more tightly focused radiation beams to tumors than is possible with conventional radiotherapy. By evaluating many possible beam arrangements; it works out the best strategy to maximize the radiation dose directed to the tumour, while minimising that delivered to neighbouring healthy tissue.

Stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT) relies on extremely focused high doses of radiation. A stereotactic frame
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Contact: Maria Maneiro
Maria@fecs.be
351-21-892-1818
Federation of European Cancer Societies
24-Oct-2001