[Radiotherapy as an emergency measure]

Abstract

An emergency in radiotherapy is a case calling for such urgent treatment that the usual stages of planning are abbreviated and radiation is started within a few hours. After a short summary of the biological effects of radiotherapy, we will discuss the emergency situations one has to deal with. Most frequent are those in the course of malignant disease. Yet, in the context of increasingly practised transfusion- and transplantation-techniques, the number of other emergencies is rising.