OPTIMIZING TREATMENT INTENSITY - CAN WE Q UANTIFY THE INTENSITY OF A RADIOTHERAPY-CHEMOTHERAPY COMBINATION

Treatment intensification is needed to overcome the disappointing effi cacy of anticancer treatments used as a single modality. The conceptio n, comparison and optimisation of radiotherapy - chemotherapy combinat ions is hampered by the lack of a common tool enabling the clinicians to quantify the effects of the association of different treatment moda lities. Such a difficulty is mainly due to chemotherapy (large array o f drugs, pharmacological uncertainties), but is also the consequence o f endpoint multiplicity (tumour control, normal tissue injury) and tum our biology complexity.