Clinical results of carbon ion radiotherapy for bone and soft tissue tumors

First choice of treatment for bone and soft tissue tumors is surgical tumor resection, but some cases have difficulties to resect radically because of tumor size, location, or their reduction in QOL after surgery. Carbon ion radiotherapy has been reported that have both good local tumor control and high QOL for patients with bone and soft tissue tumors, especially sacral chordoma and unresectable osteosarcoma of the tract. Some articles of the results with carbon ion radiotherapy for sacral chordoma show better local control and QOL than that of surgery. Moreover, several reports show good local control and preservation of QOL for patients with unresectable osteosarcoma of the tract, retroperitoneal sarcoma, and other situations of sarcomas. Now carbon ion radiotherapy can offer a promising alternative to surgery for patients with unresectable sarcomas. We will discuss about the results of carbon ion radiotherapy for bone and soft tissue tumors in this issue. (author)