Onkológia 6/2017

Radiation enteritis

Along with improving anticancer treatment there is growing number of long term cancer survivors and some of them are suffering from slowly developing late complications of anticancer treatment, which are lowering the quality of life and could be also life threatening. Radiation therapy to abdomen and pelvic region is a mainstay in the treatment of gynaecological, gastrointestinal and urogenital malignancies. Acute radiation injury to small bowel can resolve during few weeks, but chronic changes will develop during years and could complicate life of patients in longterm complete remission. Early diagnosis and supportive treatment of acute and late complications of anticancer treatment leads to improving of quality of life and also improving survival of our patients.

Keywords: acute and chronic radiation enteritis, malnutrition, supportive care