Non-standard fractionation in radiotherapy.

Most radiotherapists now know that large doses per fraction can cause severe late damage if the total dose was chosen by using NSD, TDF or CRE, and even if the early reactions were equal to those seen after a conventionally fractionated schedule. On the other hand, there have been reports of apparently successful local radiotherapy with moderately high doses per fraction up to 400 or even 500 rad. It is therefore important to have new clinical results which might demonstrate the trend beyond reasonable doubt or alternatively, might contradict it. This editorial discusses two papers on the late effects of increased doses per fraction up to 8 years after irradiation and one on the effect of overall times of 4, 6 and 10 weeks.

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