By minimizing the amount of healthy lung being treated with radiation, there should be less adverse effects to the lung and better ability to control the cancer. Furthermore, other sites can be targeted as well with the same degree of success. For patients with localized cancer, there is a greater chance of cure than if the cancer has spread beyond the original area. For those with metastatic cancer or malignancies that have spread, the purpose of sophisticated radiation is to relieve symptoms with a short burst of precise radiation. It can be used after or in lieu of chemotherapy in these sites.
Some patients select to have chemotherapy and radiosurgery together.
Generally, our group stays away from the radiation fractionation schema described in the paper since it can indeed cause fatigue and has more adversity on the healthy normal tissue than either lower dose per fraction, radiation administered in a more frequent schedule to a greater total dose or more precise radiation administered in higher doses also given in a greater total dose while attempting to avoid healthy normal tissues. When proceeding to high dose treatment we prefer the accuracy of body radiosurgery to maximize dose and minimize access of healthy tissue from being in the radiation field. Radiation certainly plays a role in the treatment of those with lung cancer. Chemotherapy is often used concurrently with radiation to sensitize the tissue to the radiation effects. Sometimes for those with relatively localized cancer surgery can play an important role either before or after treatment depending upon the clinical stage and response to treatment.