Innovative techniques in radiation oncology.Clinical research programs to improve local and regional control in cancer

There is a growing importance in failure in cancer management. In these analyses locoregional failure as the cause of death emerges as a significant problem in many tumor sites, e.g., head and neck cancer, gynecologic cancer, genitourinary cancer. Because of these data, the radiation oncology community has attributed high priority to research efforts to improve locoregional control. These efforts include the following: (1) brachytherapy alone or with external beam radiation therapy or surgery; (2) intraoperative radiation therapy; (3) hyperthermia with radiation therapy; (4) particle irradiation (protons, neutrons, stripped nuclei, and pions); and (5) routes of administration of the treatment, including infusional (intravenous) chemotherapy with radiation therapy, intraarterial monoclonal antibodies with radionuclides, and intraarterial chemotherapy with radiation therapy. Each area of investigation is discussed.