[Role of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer].

In France, 120,000 patients are irradiated every year as a part of cancer treatment. Radiotherapy can be delivered with a palliative goal, to decrease pain due to bone metastases, to treat spinal cord or cerebral compression, to treat tumor bleeding or to decrease tumor volume in inoperable patients. Radiotherapy can be delivered alone in a curative intent, for small tumours or in patients with tumors inoperable for local reasons. Radiation therapy can also be associated to surgery, pre or post-operatively to facilitate surgery or to reduce the risk of local or regional recurrence. In association with chemotherapy, radiotherapy is employed to increase local control of aggressive tumors. The delivered dose, fractionation and duration of radiotherapy must be discussed for each case but high doses can only be delivered in relatively small volumes.