Chemoradiotherapy (CRT, CRTx, CT-RT) is the combination of
chemotherapy
Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...
and
radiotherapy
Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle ...
to treat
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
. Synonyms include radiochemotherapy (RCT, RCTx, RT-CT) and chemoradiation. It is a type of
multimodal cancer therapy.
Chemoradiation can be ''concurrent''
[ (together) or ''sequential'' (one after the other).
The chemotherapy component can be or include a radiosensitizing agent.]neoadjuvant therapy
Neoadjuvant therapy is the administration of therapeutic agents before a main treatment. One example is neoadjuvant hormone therapy prior to radical radiotherapy for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. Neoadjuvant therapy aims to reduce the size o ...
before surgery has been shown to be effective in esophageal cancer
Esophageal cancer (American English) or oesophageal cancer (British English) is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include dysphagia, difficulty in swallowing and weigh ...
.
References
Further reading
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External links
Chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy for rectal cancer. (Macmillan/NHS)
Radiation therapy
{{Oncology-stub