Radiation injuries during combined radiation treatment of locally distributed cervical cancer: A literary review

Abstract

Radiation therapy is one of the leading methods of treating malignant tumors of female genital organs. However, modern radiotherapeutic equipment technical capacity does not exclude the possibility of radiation complications from healthy organs and tissues in the radiation zone. During radiation treatment (administered independently or in combination with other methods), patients develop local radiation reactions of different intensity from related organs, such as the bladder, rectum, and vagina, which significantly deteriorate patients’ quality of life. This also leads to involuntary interruptions in treatment and, finally, worsens the treatment outcome.
 Purpose: To describe radiation injuries to pelvic organs in cervical cancer radiation treatment. It analyzes the frequency and evidence of early and late radiation reactions from the affected organs.
 Results: Radiation injuries to the pelvic organs form the basis of radiation pathology in patients with cervical cancer and largely determine cured patients’ quality of life. Radiation complications of grade II-III, less often IV, are frequent after radiation treatment for pelvic cancer, especially cervical cancer.
 Conclusions: Despite the improvements in radiation treatment methods, there is still no unified system for preventing radiation reactions that would include algorithms for diagnosing and treating early and late radiation reactions using modern medications and non-pharmacological options. The development and implementation of an algorithm for the correction of radiation reactions after radiation and complex treatment for cervical cancer would timely prevent radiation and combined complications from target organs and improve patients’ quality of life.