Abstract
Radiotherapy is currently in the midst of new developments both in technology and radiobiology. Recent papers have greatly enriched the current knowledge of radiation oncology, especially radiobiology and molecular oncology, and this has changed the oncology practice in radiation therapy in just a few years. The long-term objective of the translational research program in radiation oncology, also for central nervous system tumors such as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is to improve the therapeutic window, minimizing the damage to normal tissue and increasing the efficacy of radiation in eradicating cancer. The correct determination of the single patient profile as well as single tumor behaviour, with multidisciplinary approach is one of the next challenges in radiation oncology. This conceptual revolution will derive from the stronger correlations between new radiobiological data and experimental results in molecular oncology that are increasingly becoming available and ready to be translated into clinical practice. Some of the most interesting issues regarding relationships between molecular oncology and radiotherapy are: the availability of new, more effective drugs to prescribe in conjunction with radiation, the possibility to reduce intrinsic radioresistance or, on the contrary, to enhance radiosensitivity with innovative molecular targeted agents, the increasing potential application of cancer stem cells with radiotherapy, the impact of new molecular tracers for functional imaging of brain in radiotherapy treatment planning and in response evaluation. These issues are analysed and discussed in the present overview in regard to the recent literature on the topic.
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Alongi, F., Chiti, A., Navarria, P., Scorsetti, M. (2012). Relationship Between Molecular Oncology and Radiotherapy in Malignant Gliomas (An Overview). In: Hayat, M. (eds) Tumors of the Central Nervous System, Volume 4. Tumors of the Central Nervous System, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1706-0_11
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