Current aspects of radiobiology as applied to radiotherapy

Abstract

Radiobiology contributes to radiotherapy a framework of ideas, available to every thinking radiotherapist. Solutions to practical problems cannot yet be proposed with confidence. First, enough information has to be gathered for radiobiology to be able to explain the successes and failures of radiotherapy. It has not got far into this analytical phase yet; synthesis will come later. Progress can be made by a continuing dialogue between radiotherapists and radiobiologists. At each stage the implications of radiobiological results should be reviewed for comparison with clinical experience. There has hitherto been a shortage of reliable clinical data against which radiobiological concepts could be checked, but controlled trials are now more common; as clinical data become more reliable we can ask how the known radiobiological concepts are standing up to the comparisons. They are standing up very well. This is the theme of the lecture: the basic radiobiological approach is beginning to pay off, as a framework of ideas on which a positive approach to radiotherapy can be based. The substance of this lecture is presented in somewhat shortened form under 12 headings with apologies for all that has been omitted.