American University of Beirut
Physics Department
Invites you to a talk entitled
Normal Tissue Effects in Cancer Patients from Therapeutic Radiation
Exposures
By
Dr. Phil Taddei
DABR, Assistant Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
American University of Beirut Medical Center
Abstract
Because of its effectiveness in causing lethal damage to cancer cells and yielding local tumor
control, radiotherapy is an important component of most curative cancer treatments. In
radiotherapy, very high doses of radiation are delivered deliberately to patients, with the goal
of conforming a prescribed radiation dose to the clinical target and nearby tissues. In this
process, radiation damages organs and tissues both from therapeutic radiation within the
treatment fields and stray radiation outside the treatment fields. Modern radiotherapy
techniques seek to control the local tumor and other cancer or pre-cancer cells while keeping
the doses in organs at risk below tolerance doses. However, these tolerance doses are focused
almost exclusively on acute effects, which occur during treatment or days to months after
treatment and are often severe. Recently, stray radiation doses and late effects, which can
occur years to decades after treatment, are becoming increasingly important factors for
treatment planning and delivery. Long-term epidemiological studies of radiotherapy patients
are essential for understanding the relationship between effective dose and the risk of late
effects. However, many of the techniques used to deliver the radiation (and often the
chemotherapy used) for these patients are no longer used. This underscores the value of
predictive dosimetric studies, for example in silico clinical trials. In this presentation, we will
discuss the radiogenic risks in normal tissues of cancer patients receiving radiotherapy,
including recent epidemiological and predictive dosimetric studies, with a particular focus on
late effects. Methods of reducing these risks will also be presented.
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Place: Emile Bustani for Physics, Rm. 333