Abstract
A key challenge in radiotherapy is to maximize radiation doses to cancer cells while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. As severe toxicity in a minority of patients limits the doses that can be safely given to the majority, there is interest in developing a test to measure an individual's radiosensitivity before treatment. Variation in sensitivity to radiation is an inherited genetic trait and recent progress in genotyping raises the possibility of genome-wide studies to characterize genetic profiles that predict patient response to radiotherapy. © 2009 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 134-142 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Nature Reviews Cancer |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Feb 2009 |
Keywords
- radiation effects: Cell Survival
- Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation
- Genotype
- Humans
- genetics: Neoplasms
- Radiation Tolerance
- adverse effects: Radiotherapy