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Radiation Oncology/Radiobiology/Radiosensitizer
Reference material by Wikibooks contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
A radiosensitizer is an agent that makes tumor cells more sensitive to radiation therapy. It is sometimes also known as a radiation sensitizer or radio-enhancer
Hypoxic radiosensitizers and hypoxic cytotoxins (PMID: 12871083):
Two different types of strategies can be used to overcome the problem of hypoxia-mediated radioresistance:
The first strategy encompasses a variety of different methods to improve the tumor oxygenation during radiotherapy
The second strategy tries to target hypoxia as a relatively unique feature of tumor tissue by means of drugs, which are activated under hypoxic conditions and act as hypoxic radiosensitizers or hypoxic cytotoxins