[Combined treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy (author's transl)].

Concomitant combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy is less well tolerated by normal tissues than sequential administration. Furthermore, as chemotherapy has to be continued for long periods in order to be effective, the benefits of concomitant administration appear to be minimal in relation to its inconveniences. For sequential treatment, a time interval of one week between the two therapies can reduce cumulative toxic effects on normal tissues. Moreover it is preferable to administer each of them as early as possible to reduce the risk of the development of resistant tumoral cells. A treatment schedule is proposed in which chemotherapy is started as soon as possible with the conventional scheduling of one cycle every month. Radiotherapy is given one week after interrupting chemotherapy, and continued until one week before beginning further cycle of chemotherapy. It is then reinstituted on week after the end of this course, and continued until all tissues have been sufficiently irradiated.