Carsten Nieder • Laurie E. Gaspar
Editors

2014

Prognosis, Treatment Response and Toxicity

Practicing radiation oncologists have to make several important decisions during treatment planning and realization, one patient at a time. Questions such as ‘‘is radiotherapy indicated, what is the optimal dose/fractionation regimen, what is the optimal technique and dose distribution, what are the risks and side effects’’ have to be addressed. This is often done in larger multidisciplinary teams, and ideally based on solid scientific evidence. Compared to earlier decades, we have now an incredibly large tool box, allowing for assessment of tumor biology and its surrogates, imaging biomarkers, host genetics, and dynamic tumor changes during treatment, to name a few. New research adding to these fields is being presented at each of the major international oncology meetings, including but not limited to prognostic scores and nomograms.