IMRT Promising for Treatment of Hodgkin's Disease with Minimal Side Effects

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) promises to be superior to conventional radiation therapies for the treatment of Hodgkin's disease, according to a new study presented October 8, 2002, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

IMRT is a relatively new type of external beam radiation treatment that is able to conform radiation to the size, shape and location of a tumor. Conventional radiation therapies cannot target tumors as precisely, and as a result, they can expose healthy tissue to radiation, causing complications. For Hodgkin's disease patients, these side effects may include long-term damage to the heart, lung, and thyroid, and an increased risk of breast and lung cancer. With IMRT, a computer system ensures that the optimal dose of radiation is delivered to the tumor, and the exposure to surrounding healthy tissue is minimized.

A major focus in developing new therapies for Hodgkin's disease has been to minimize long-term treatment-related complications, given the excellent survival resulting from modern treatment approaches. The objective of the researchers was to evaluate the dosimetry of conventional radiotherapy for Hodgkin's disease, and assess the potential benefit of IMRT with respect to targeting the tumor and sparing surrounding normal tissue.

After comparing the dosimetry (calculation of treatment dose) of actual and hypothetical treatments on three patients for whom three-dimensional treatment planning scans were available, researchers concluded that IMRT would allow them to increase the dose of radiation to the tumor and improve their ability to spare healthy areas from high-dose radiation.

"Since most patients with Hodgkin's disease can now be cured, it is especially important to reduce both short- and long-term complications that may significantly impact their health and quality of life," said Billy W. Loo, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Stanford University and lead author of the study. "Technologies such as IMRT may help accomplish this while maintaining high efficacy, and are promising for evaluation in future clinical trials."