Lec 22 - Radiation and Oncology Flashcards
4 basic patterns of spread
1) local growth-tumor itsle fenlarges over time (size or depth)
2) local extension - tumor invades adjacent organs
3) lymph node metastases
4) hematogenous metasteses - ex prostate to bone and small cell lung to brain
3 main treatments
1) surgery
2) medical therapy -chemo, hormone, biologic, vaccine
3) radiation therapy
adjuvant meaning
usually done after main treatment (aka surgery in most)
neoadjuvant meaning:
before the mos important treatment
RT used as adjunct cancer examples:
Breast cancer
skin cancer
prostate cancer
uterineendometrium
RT used as neoadjuvant cancer examples:
esophgeal
rectal CA
pancreaticCA
extremity sarcoma
a radiosensitive tumor does what with radiation?
melts!
radioresponsive tumor does what with RT?
melts quickly!
4 Rs of radiation therapy
1) repair- splitting radiation into small parts, normal tissue cells are allowed to repair sublethal damage but tumor cells cant do this as well
2) redistribution: allow tumor cells to move into the most sensitive phases of cell cycle over time
3) reoxygenation- allow “inner” hypoxic tumor cells to get a greater exposure to oxygen over the course of treatment
4) repopulation: delivering continuous, daily blows to tumor cells prevents them from repopulating and thriving
How RT works…
- DNA of well-oxygenated tumor cells appears to be the main target for biological effect of radiation
- most important lesion induced is adouble strand DNA break
radiosensitive phase of cell cycle=
M/G2
radioresistant phase of cell cycle =
S
therapeutic ratio
TCP is greater than NTCP = thats why radiation is useful
what type of cells are more radioresistant?
hypoxic cells - O2 for some reason seems to enhance ability to cause double strand DNA breaks
reoxygenation allows for?
progressvie killing of tumor cells
kill the outer oxygenated cell–> reoxygenate outer cells of what didnt die –> kill that new outer oxygenated area… on and on