Chemoradiotherapy (CRT, CRTx, CT-RT) is the combination of
chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...
and
radiotherapy
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...
to treat
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
. Synonyms include radiochemotherapy (RCT, RCTx, RT-CT) and chemoradiation. It is a type of
multimodal cancer therapy
Multimodal cancer therapy, often referred to simply as multimodal therapy or multimodal cancer care, is an approach for treatment of cancer that combines of radiation and chemotherapy likes multiple therapeutic modalities. For example, in the case ...
.
Chemoradiation can be ''concurrent''
[ (together) or ''sequential'' (one after the other).
The chemotherapy component can be or include a ]radiosensitizing agent
A radiosensitizer is an agent that makes tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. It is sometimes also known as a radiation sensitizer or radio-enhancer.
Mechanism of action
Conventional chemotherapeutics are currently being used in con ...
.neoadjuvant therapy
Neoadjuvant therapy is the administration of therapeutic agents before a main treatment. One example is neoadjuvant hormone therapy prior to radical radiotherapy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Neoadjuvant therapy aims to reduce the size or ...
before surgery has been shown to be effective in esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Other symptoms may include pain when swallowing, a hoarse voice ...
.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. (Macmillan/NHS)
Radiation therapy
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