Between 1978 and 2003, 200 patients with stage I NSCLC were treated with radiation therapy alone. 36%of patients who received 3D-CRT lived five years after diagnosis compared to 10% who received conventional therapy.
Lung Cancer
Three-Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy 3D-CRT represents an approach to improve the local outcome of radiotherapy in NSCLC. The major aim of this method is to decrease the risk of underdosing or missing portions of the tumor. In addition, owing to the improved ability to conform the high radiation dose to the target, considerable amounts of normal lung, esophagus, and heart can be effectively excluded from the high-radiation-dose regions. This provides a potential for increasing the tumor dose to levels beyond those feasible with conventional radiotherapy, with a concomitant decrease in the normal tissue.
