Radiochemotherapy – questions/answers

During chemoradiotherapy the two main non-surgical anticancer methods are combined to improve the treatment outcomes.  The theoretical possibilities of interactions and the most frequently used drugs will be presented here, emphasizing that although both the radiation therapy and the drugs need to be administered in full dose in practice considering the summarization of side effects we often have to make compromises. The treatments of the most frequent indications (brain, head and neck, oesophagus, lung, stomach, pancreas, rectum, bladder, cervix, soft tissue sarcoma) will be demonstrated. Since there are several drugs and drug combinations that are not included in the Hungarian registered anticancer therapies, for their off-label use the permission of the National Institute of Pharmacy and Nutrition is required. To choose the optimal treatment (during planning the optimal place of chemoradiotherapy, agents and doses) the opinion of a multidisciplinary team is necessary.