This week's artwork was donated by Vansom, a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia .
Advanced tumors are frequently unresectable and treated with radiotherapy.
Theoretically, better tumor control might be obtained if radiation treatment was accelerated. With a median follow-up of 28 months no difference was seen between groups, regarding late toxicity. The very accelerated regimen used in this study led to a marked increase in acute toxicity along with a significant improvement in local control. No benefit in terms of overall survival was seen with accelerated fractionation. Issues of alternated fractionation may become less relevant in the future, given that combined chemoradiation regimens have been found superior to radiation- only treatments, in terms of overall survival in this group of patients.