Amifostine is the generic name for a drug that is marketed using the name Ethyol. This medicine is supposed to protect against the damaging effects of radiation. The medicine was originally developed by the military that was working on a medicine that would protect soldiers from exposure from a radioactive “dirty” bomb. It was ultimately licensed by the pharmaceutical industry for medical uses.

   The drug is supposed to be a free radical scavenger.  Since radiation creates free radicals that subsequently damage DNA, a free radical scavenger would theorectically mitigate some of this effect.  The drug is believed to be preferentially taken up by normal tissues instead of the tumor, which is why amifostine shouldn’t protect the tumor.

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In this audio interview with Dr. Vivek Mehta, Radiation Oncologist and Director of the Center for Advanced Targeted Radiotherapy at Swedish Cancer Institute, Dr. Mehta explains current and emerging new radiation techniques, as well as the current state of radiation therapy to treat patients with “medically unresectable” early stage NSCLC, or patients who decline the option of surgery for resectable disease.  He also covers side effect challenges with radiation and particularly when chest radiation is combined with chemotherapy.  In addition to the audio portion, there are a few figures synchronized with the discussion in the video version, or you can just download the figures as a separate pdf file.  The transcript is also provided below.

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