Evidence for an influence of overall treatment time on radiotherapeutic - Outcome in different tumor entities

Background and Method: The effect of overall treatment time on therapeutic outcome was analyzed comparing the randomized trials on accelerated fractio nation for the different tumor entities. Only studies using radiotherapy as the definitive locoregional treatment modality were included. Results and Conclusion: Randomized studies were performed fur squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck region as well as for small-cell and non-s mall-cell carcinomas of the lung. These studies showed, that locoregional c ontrol can be improved by accelerated fractionation in comparison to conven tional fractionation with the same total dose. With the same antitumor effe ctiveness of both fractionation schedules, total dose can be reduced using accelerated fractionation.