New Italian guidelines set standards for gastrointestinal tumor radiotherapy

New national clinical guidelines have been published in the scientific journal Oncologie regarding the use of advanced Image-Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) for gastrointestinal tumors located in the upper abdomen. These recommendations specifically target treatments for cancers of the pancreas, stomach, liver, and bile ducts.

The guidelines were developed by a group of twenty Italian experts, including radiation oncologists, medical physicists, and radiotherapy technicians. The initiative is a collaborative effort between the Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO), the Italian Association of Oncology Radiotherapy Technicians (AITRO), and the Italian Association of Medical Physics (AIFM).

Professor Pierfrancesco Franco, Director of Radiation Oncology at the Maggiore della Carità Hospital and associate professor at the University of Eastern Piedmont, is among the experts who signed the document. The working group identified 16 fundamental aspects for the clinical application of precision radiotherapy, aiming to establish uniform quality standards across Italian treatment centers. The techniques focus on maximizing tumor targeting while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy organs and tissues through personalized respiratory monitoring and integrated daily CT scans.