Newly developed radiation procedures as an addition to the therapeutic arsenal in gastrointestinal tumours

Since newly developed radiotherapeutic methods (such as high-dose-after-loading contact irradiation and intraoperative radiotherapy), radiobiologic knowledge (e.g. on acceleration and hyperfractionated split-dose regimens) and combination treatment programmes (e.g. radiochemotherapy) were made available to the medical world, the radiooncologic methods for the treatment of gastrointestinal tumours in particular have changed to such an extent that this will have a lasting effect on the entire therapeutic approach to those tumours. This report describes the above-mentioned innovations as well as the relevant experience so far gained in actual practice. (orig.)