Abstract
Radiation therapy is a highly utilized therapy in the treatment of malignancies with up to 60% of cancer patients receiving radiation therapy as a part of their treatment regimen. Radiation therapy does, however, cause a wide range of adverse effects that can be severe and cause permanent damage to the patient. In an attempt to minimize these effects, a small number of compounds have been identified and are in use clinically for the prevention and treatment of radiation associated toxicities. Furthermore, there are a number of emerging therapies being developed for use as agents that protect against radiation-induced toxicities. The aim of this review was to evaluate and summarise the evidence that exists for both the known radioprotectant agents and the agents that show promise as future radioprotectant agents.
Highlights
Radiation therapy is an important treatment modality for many malignancies with as many as 60% of cancer patients receive ionizing radiation as a part of their therapeutic regimen [1].While radiotherapy has variable success depending on the cancer being treated, the toxicity or side effects associated with its use is of concern as it can affect quality of life [2]
A non-essential amino acid, has been widely studied for its potential beneficial effects in a number of pathologies associated with radiation toxicity including mucositis, dermatitis and oesphagitis [29,30,31,32,33,34,35]
This study showed no protective effect after glutamine was administered a dose of
Summary
Radiation therapy is an important treatment modality for many malignancies with as many as 60% of cancer patients receive ionizing radiation as a part of their therapeutic regimen [1]. In addition to direct ionisation of critical targets, ionizing radiation is able to induce cellular damage indirectly via the production of reactive species. This indirect mechanism accounts for approximately two thirds of the biological damage produced by X-rays, and is the central mechanism of the ”oxygen fixation hypotheses” [14]. TGF-β is of particular importance in pathophysiology of radiation toxicity with regard to mediating radiation-induced fibrosis of the lungs and skin [18] These mediators initiate a long term inflammatory response and as result chronic inflammation and tissue injury occurs as seen in Figure 1 [17]. List of adverse effects associated with Associated radiation therapy [3]
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