Radiation stents – A road less travelled

Abstract

Radiotherapy has become one of the promising modalities in cancer treatment either as primary or in combination with other forms of therapy. But is also associated with a number of short and long term adverse effects such as pain, mucositis, erythema, ulceration, soft tissue necrosis, altered taste /olfaction, edema, radiation induced fibrosis, trismus, dysphagia, radiation caries, salivary gland dysfunction and Osteoradionecrosis. In almost every case, the adjacent normal tissue also gets irradiated because of its close proximity and worsens the scenario. Hence, their tissue tolerance exceeds, which leads to cell injury and a vicious cycle of adverse effects follows. Radiation stents can be a boon in sparing the adjacent tissues. This literature review summarizes the evidence which suggest actual reduction of adverse effects due to decline in levels of radiation in adjacent tissues.