Clinical analysis of acute radiation-induced pneumonia in conventional radiotherapy and superfractioned radiotherapy

Objective: A retrospective study was made to analyze the relationship between radiation dose/area affected and incidence of acute radiation induced pneumonia and its therapeutic efficacy in conventional radiotherapy and superfractioned radiotherapy. Methods: From December 1995 to June 2002, 303 cases of lung cancer patients were treated with radiotherapy. Of the 303 patients, 183 were treated with conventional radiotherapy, with a radiation dose of 2 Gy/fraction, 1 fraction/day, 5 days/week, with a total dosage of 50～70 Gy. And another 120 cases were given superfractioned radiotherapy, with a radiation dose of 1.0～1.25 Gy/fraction, 2 fractions/day with an interval of 6 hours between fractions, 5 days/week, with the same total dosage of 50～70 Gy. Results: There occurred 33 cases of acute radiation-induced pneumonia, with an occurrence of 10.9%, of which the occurrence for the conventional radiotherapy was 10.4% and that for the superfractioned radiotherapy was 11.7%. After treatment, Remission rates of acute radiation induced pneumonia in conventional radiotherapy and superfractioned radiotherapy were 84.2% and 85.7% respectively. Conclusion: Occurrence of acute radiation induced pneumonia in the conventional radiotherapy group was almost identical to that of the superfractioned radiotherapy group. Through proper treatment, symptoms and signs of both groups can be obviously relieved, but prevention should be put in the first place when treatment was given to these patients.