The clinical effect study on malignant tumors with chronoradiotherapy

Like normal cells, tumor cells are also rhythmic. Chronochemotherapy has been proven to be effective in clinic, yet there are still some controversies about the efficacy and radiotherapy-related toxicity of chronoradiotherapy. This study was designed to investigate the therapy-related toxicity and short-term effect of four types of malignant tumor patients who were treated with radiotherapy at two different times. 121 cases of malignant tumor patients with radiotherapy indications were randomly divided into morning radiotherapy (MR) group and evening radiotherapy (ER) group, who received an identical procedure of radiotherapy at 9 am or 9 pm, respectively. The effects of radiotherapy were evaluated by short-term effect and therapy-related toxicity in this study. The efficacy rates of radiotherapy of lung cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma in ER groups were higher than those in MR groups, but the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05); the efficacy rates of radiotherapy of cervical and esophageal cancers in ER groups were significantly higher than those in MR groups (P < 0.05). The incidences of radiotherapy-related toxicity in these 4 types of malignant tumor patients were significantly lower in ER groups (P < 0.05), compared with MR groups. It suggests that irradiation in the evening could increase the efficacy in cervical and esophageal cancer patients and reduce the incidence of radiotherapy-related toxicity in these four malignant tumor patients.