Radiation Therapy For Gastrointestinal (GI) Tumors
A wide variety of GI tumors are treated with Radiation Therapy, notably cancers of the stomach, pancreas, and rectum. In many of these tumor sites, radiation is used in conjunction with chemotherapy either prior to (preoperative radiotherapy) or following surgery (postoperative radiotherapy). Preoperative chemoradiotherapy is also commonly used prior to surgery in patients with esophageal carcinoma.
While the mainstay of treatment in most GI tumors, surgery is intentionally avoided in anal cancer by the use of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (view paper). Such an approach avoids the need for a permanent colostomy improving patient quality of life.
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