In Brief
Long-term Consequences of Radiation Therapy
Without doubt, radiation therapy has a high degree of efficiency in treating tumours. Even so, some patients, in particular children and teenagers, display long-term consequences, such as new tumours or fertility disorders. By using heavy ions in tumour treatment methods, such long-term consequences can be reduced, report Marco Durante, Head of Biophysics at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research and Dr Wayne D. Newhauser from the MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA, in a review published in the professional journal "Nature Reviews Cancer".
"The hitherto obtained data indicate that a treatment with particle therapies – that is, protons or heavy ions – features a lower risk for a later secondary development of cancer than do conventional therapies with gamma rays", says Durante. "This applies in particular to the tumour therapy employing heavy ions as it was developed at the GSI Helmholtz Centre." About 40% of the children and teenagers surviving cancer thanks to radiation treatment suffer from life-threatening long-term consequences, such as secondary cancer, within a period of 30 years after diagnosis.
