This report lends further support to the role of radiotherapy as an important form of both curative and palliative treatment. At present, radiotherapy is provided to nearly one half of all cancer patients at some stage in their disease. However, randomized controlled trials are needed to enhance the level of knowledge within several areas covered by the report. More patients must be included in clinical trials.
The scientific literature shows that surgery in combination with radiotherapy has curative effects on many types of cancer, eg, breast cancer, rectal cancer, sarcoma, cervical cancer, and uterine cancer. Radiotherapy alone may have curative effects on some types of cancer, eg, in head and neck cancer and certain types of lymphoma.
Radiotherapy is shown to have good palliative effects on metastasized cancer, particularly skeletal metastasis and symptomatic metastasis in the brain. A comparison of results from the literature review and the survey of treatment practice shows that curative radiotherapy in Sweden is delivered largely in accordance with the scientific evidence. Palliative treatments have increased, which concurs with the findings presented in the earlier SBU report.