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Radiosensitivity syndromes and diseases

Individual radiation sensitivity during radiotherapy

Increased individual sensitivity to radiation, which can lead to adverse effects from radiotherapy, has become very rare thanks to modern, precise radiotherapy techniques. The reason for this is that with precise modern radiotherapy there is less and less normal tissue in the high-dose area, minimising the risk of adverse effects. However, there is a risk that some patients may be so sensitive to radiation that the likelihood of an adverse event occurring is greatly increased despite the precision of the radiotherapy. It is important for these patients to be identified and their radiation sensitivity assessed in advance.

 

Certain underlying conditions are associated with increased radiation sensitivity. This may be different for different pre-existing conditions and may vary from patient to patient.
The purpose of the information on radiation sensitivity measurements and clinical case reports from the literature for various pre-existing conditions on the website of the Radiologische Universitätsklinik Erlangen-Nürnberg is not to reliably predict the radiation sensitivity of a patient with a particular pre-existing condition or to decide whether or not radiotherapy is suitable on this basis.
Rather, the aim is to be able to better assess the risk of increased radiation sensitivity in a patient with a certain pre-existing condition and the usefulness of testing for individual radiation sensitivity, which is currently very limited.
If a patient is found to have an increased individual sensitivity to radiation, this is not an absolute contraindication to radiotherapy.
Instead, the indication for radiotherapy should be carefully considered and, if necessary, the daily and total radiation dose of the planned radiotherapy should be adjusted according to the radiation sensitivity.

We are very interested in case reports of individual patients with a known cause of increased radiation sensitivity and would be grateful if you could share these with us. We are also very interested in references to publications with relevant data on increased radiation sensitivity. Please let us know, email

 

Individual radiation sensitivity working group

Strahlenklinik

Prof. Dr. med. Luitpold Distel

Leiter Strahlenbiologie

E-mail: luitpold.distel(at)uk-erlangen.de