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Using high-energy X-rays or particles to damage the DNA of cancer cells in a precisely aimed volume of the body. On its own it cures early prostate, larynx, cervix and skin cancers, it is combined with chemotherapy in head and neck, lung, oesophageal and rectal cancers, and about half of all cancer patients receive it.
Modern radiotherapy shapes beams to the tumour from several angles (IMRT, image-guided and stereotactic techniques) so that the tumour gets a lethal dose while surrounding tissue gets much less; treatment is usually split into daily fractions over one to seven weeks to let normal tissue repair, though ultra-short courses (SBRT) are increasingly used. It is a local therapy, curative on its own in early prostate, larynx, cervix and skin cancers, combined with chemotherapy in head and neck, lung, oesophageal and rectal cancers, and used after surgery to sterilise the operative bed. Protons and carbon ions spare more normal tissue; radiation may also help immunotherapy by releasing tumour antigens (the abscopal effect), and radioligand therapy delivers radiation internally through a targeting molecule.
Showing the technology this term belongs to: IMRT / IGRT (modern external beam).
Patients with limited-stage small-cell lung cancer who complete chemoradiotherapy without progression should now be offered up to two years of durvalumab consolidation, which extends life by almost two years on average. This is the first survival improvement for limited-stage disease since twice-daily radiotherapy and prophylactic cranial irradiation, and small-cell lung cancer is no longer a disease where immunotherapy gives only marginal gains.
Stage III lung cancer is now treated by genotype as well as by stage: an EGFR mutation moves a patient from durvalumab consolidation to osimertinib consolidation. It is also the strongest hazard ratio in the lung cancer literature, which is a reason to read the overall survival data carefully when they arrive.
The current standard for unresectable stage III lung cancer, and the clearest evidence in the disease that consolidation immunotherapy converts responses into cures for some patients rather than merely delaying relapse.
Organ preservation became a plan rather than an accident: consolidation chemotherapy after chemoradiotherapy gives the best chance of keeping the rectum, and salvage surgery after regrowth does not appear to cost survival.
The second total neoadjuvant therapy schedule to change practice, and the one that shows the advantage is partly deliverability: chemotherapy given before an operation is completed by far more patients than chemotherapy given after one.
The first total neoadjuvant therapy trial to change practice in high-risk rectal cancer, and the schedule that makes organ preservation possible by giving the tumour months rather than weeks to respond.
Anatomy alone explains only about two thirds of the ranking of who lives longer; the 2026 staging review makes the same point and argues for molecular and nodal-burden modifiers alongside TNM.
Radiotherapy cannot be omitted in early-stage favourable Hodgkin lymphoma on the basis of a negative interim scan without a clinically relevant loss of tumour control. The scan is better at identifying who needs more than at identifying who needs less.
Shares A Prospective, Single-Arm, Phase II Study: PD-L1 Monoclonal Antibody + Chemoradiotherapy as Bridge Therapy to Liver Transplantation for Locally Advanced Perihilar Cholangiocarcinoma (ACHIEVE-LT), Efficacy and Safety of Postoperative Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Extrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma and Gallbladder Carcinoma: A Multicenter Prospective Phase II Study, Nomogram for predicting the benefit of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy for resected gallbladder cancer, Preoperative radiotherapy versus selective postoperative chemoradiotherapy in patients with rectal cancer (MRC CR07 and NCIC-CTG C016).
Shares Nomogram for predicting the benefit of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy for resected gallbladder cancer, Improved survival with preoperative radiotherapy in resectable rectal cancer (Swedish Rectal Cancer Trial), Preoperative radiotherapy versus selective postoperative chemoradiotherapy in patients with rectal cancer (MRC CR07 and NCIC-CTG C016), SWOG S0809: A Phase II Intergroup Trial of Adjuvant Capecitabine and Gemcitabine Followed by Radiotherapy and Concurrent Capecitabine in Extrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma and Gallbladder Carcinoma.
Shares Breast cancer following radiotherapy and chemotherapy among young women with Hodgkin disease, Cardiovascular disease after Hodgkin lymphoma treatment: 40-year disease risk, GHSG HD10, Second cancer risk up to 40 years after treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Shares Improved survival with preoperative radiotherapy in resectable rectal cancer (Swedish Rectal Cancer Trial), Preoperative radiotherapy versus selective postoperative chemoradiotherapy in patients with rectal cancer (MRC CR07 and NCIC-CTG C016), Rectal cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up, Preoperative radiotherapy combined with total mesorectal excision for resectable rectal cancer (Dutch TME trial).
Shares Growth and final height after treatment in childhood, and growth hormone, Breast cancer after chest radiotherapy in childhood, and the screening that follows, Kidneys after cisplatin, ifosfamide, radiotherapy and nephrectomy in childhood, Teeth, jaws and facial growth after treatment in childhood.
Shares Growth and final height after treatment in childhood, and growth hormone, Kidneys after cisplatin, ifosfamide, radiotherapy and nephrectomy in childhood, Teeth, jaws and facial growth after treatment in childhood, The pituitary, puberty and the hypothalamic axis after cranial radiotherapy in childhood.
Shares GHSG HD10, Positron emission tomography-guided treatment in early-stage favorable Hodgkin lymphoma: final results of the international, randomized phase III HD16 trial by the German Hodgkin Study Group, Early positron emission tomography response-adapted treatment in stage I and II Hodgkin lymphoma: final results of the randomized EORTC/LYSA/FIL H10 trial, A radiotherapy-free cure for early Hodgkin lymphoma that actually holds.
Shares Growth and final height after treatment in childhood, and growth hormone, Breast cancer after chest radiotherapy in childhood, and the screening that follows, Kidneys after cisplatin, ifosfamide, radiotherapy and nephrectomy in childhood, The pituitary, puberty and the hypothalamic axis after cranial radiotherapy in childhood.