Lung Cancer
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Limitations with Other Radiotherapy Approaches
Increased Dose of Radiation
It is difficult to deliver a large enough radiation dose to a lung cancer to completely exterminate it, even using contemporary sophisticated treatment techniques, without also risking serious injury to a critical adjacent structure such as normal lung, bronchus, heart, spinal cord or esophagus. If there were a method of safely intensifying the radiation dose without increasing the risk of injury to adjacent tissues, the treatment would become more effective (8).
Example of large margin around cancer with conventional radiation
Written by Donald B. Fuller, M.D. – Radiation Oncologist