Risks associated with low levels of lymphocyte apoptosis in patients receiving radiation therapy
February 20th, 2009 Posted in radiation therapyA scientific team has reported that, in men receiving external beam radiation therapy as treatment for localized disease, the occurrence of high levels of lymphocyte apoptosis (programmed cell death of white cells known as lymphocytes found in the bloodstream and the lymph) after treatment with just 8 Gy of radiation has the potential to predict which patients will be spared late toxicity after completion of radiation therapy.
The clinical implications of this finding will need to be investigated: for example, does this imply that men with low lovels of lymphocyte apoptosis after 8 Gy of radiation should abandon this form of treatment to protect themselves from post-treatment toxicities?