FLASH radiotherapy: A new milestone in the field of cancer radiotherapy

• Published in: Cancer letters 2024-04, Vol.587, p.216651-216651, Article 216651
• Main Authors: Tang, Rui, Yin, Jianqiong, Liu, Yuanxin, Xue, Jianxin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antitumor effect; FLASH-RT; Normal tissue protection effect; Radiotherapy
• ISSN: 0304-3835; 1872-7980
• DOI: 10.1016/j.canlet.2024.216651

Radiotherapy plays a pivotal role in the control and eradication of tumors, but it can also induce radiation injury to surrounding normal tissues while targeting tumor cells. In recent years, FLASH-Radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) has emerged as a cutting-edge research focus in the field of radiation therapy. By delivering high radiation doses to the treatment target in an ultra-short time, FLASH-RT produces the FLASH effect, which reduces the toxicity to normal tissues while achieving comparable tumor control efficacy to conventional radiotherapy. This review provides a brief overview of the development history of FLASH-RT and its impact on tumor control. Additionally, it focuses on introducing the protective effects and molecular mechanisms of this technology on various normal tissues, as well as exploring its synergistic effects when combined with other tumor therapies. Importantly, this review discusses the challenges faced in translating FLASH-RT into clinical practice and outlines its promising future applications. •FLASH-Radiotherapy has observed protective effects on various normal tissues than Conventional dose rate radiotherapy.•FLASH-Radiotherapy exhibits similar antitumor effects as Conventional dose rate radiotherapy and even be more effective.•FLASH-radiotherapy as an innovative radiotherapy technique, will face great challenges translating into clinical practice.