Follow-up of Pulmonary Toxicity by Respiratory Functional Tests of Patients Treated With Dynamic Cancer ARCtherapy for Bronchopulmonary Cancer.

Radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy is a stable treatment in the management of patients with localized smack cell bronchopulmonary cancers, or not to small cells not metastatic but not operable. Radiation therapy results in changes in respiratory function, as measured by respiratory function tests and represented primarily by spirometry, total body plethysmography, and the diffusion capacity of the alveolar-capillary membrane.

Although these tests are minimally invasive, few studies have investigated the implications of radiation therapy on lung function in patients treated for pulmonary neoplasia, while these patients are often already carriers of respiratory diseases and will receive further chemotherapy during their illness, subject to their general good condition, including respiratory. No method has been recognized as superior for measuring the consequences of radiation therapy on respiratory function. After chest radiotherapy alone, the decline in diffusion capacity is estimated at 10-34%. New irradiation techniques have emerged over the last decade, in particular dynamic arc therapy. This innovative technology, combined with image-guided irradiation processes, ensures high-precision, short-term treatment, but exposes virtually all of the lungs to irradiation, although at very low doses, the objective consequences of which on respiratory functional explorations have never been reported.

The aim of this study is therefore to assess the consequences of low doses of radiation delivered by this recent technology, volumetric therapy, on the respiratory capacity of patients treated with radiotherapy within the framework of of bronchopulmonary carcinoma.