Lung pathology after radiotherapy. Radiation protection (Bibliographic study)

The point of departure of this work is the book by Weir and Michaelson entitled 'Pulmonary Radiation Reactions', where the authors sum up present knowledge on lung reactions to ionizing radiation exposure from the anatomopathological, metabolic and chemical, functional, clinical and experimental viewpoints in turn. The aim is not to contribute anything new to lung cancerology or to specific lung radiotherapy but merely to attemps, from a survey of recent literature on the irradiated lung, to extract concrete elements liable to improve to some extent the survival conditions of patients subjected to strong lung irradiation during radiotherapy centred on the thorax. Publications over the last ten years alone are abundant and varied. Not all are mentioned since many studies and results overlap and finally some hundred of the most representative texts have been chosen. In any case the conclusion, with that of Weir and Michaelson, is that not enough radiobiological data are yet available to allow present radiotherapeutical treatments on the lung region to be improved with certainty