Clinical Applications of Pulsed Low Dose-Rate Radiation Therapy

Pulsed low dose-rate radiotherapy (PLDR) is a novel radiotherapy technique for cancer treatments, which relies on two radiobiological findings, the hyper-radiosensitivity of tumor cells at small doses and the reduced normal tissue toxicity at low dose rates. PLDR delivers the daily radiation dose in a number of sub-fractions (pulses) with a preset time interval to achieve an effective low dose rate. PLDR can be delivered on existing clinical machines using different treatment optimization strategies and delivery techniques. Clinical trials have been carried out to study the application of PLDR for various cancers especially for recurrent cancers. Preliminary results from these clinical studies have shown favorable outcome. This paper briefly describes the PLDR technique, the planning requirements and its clinical applications in cancer treatment.