RECENT PROGRESS IN RADIOTHERAPY

Radiation therapy has considerably evolved in I century. After the rev olution due to cobalt in the beginning of the sixties, we are now ente ring the 2nd revolution in three fields in external radiotherapy. Meth odology: the development of quality assurance programmes gives the gua rantee that the treatment is done as it is prescribed. Technology: rec ent developments allow conformal radiation therapy which permits to in crease the dose without increasing side effects. Biology: the implemen tation of predictive assays will permit to choose rile best modality o f treatment for each patient. In brachytherapy, the use of high dose r ate radioactive sources increases indications in locations not yet acc essible. Pulse dose rate brachytherapy increases radio-protection and will make optimization possible in complex volumes. In the future, ind ications of curative radiotherapy will probably increase in regard to earlier diagnosis of many cancers and to increase of efficacy of gener al treatments on metastatic disease.