[New techniques and potential benefits for radiotherapy of lung cancer]

Radiotherapy is used for inoperable lung cancers, sometimes in association with chemotherapy. Outcomes of conventional radiotherapy are disappointing. New techniques improve adaptation to tumour volume, decrease normal tissue irradiation and lead to increasing tumour dose with the opportunity for improved survival. With intensity-modulated radiation therapy, isodoses can conform to complex volumes. It is widely used and seems to be indicated in locally advanced stages. Its dosimetric improvements have been demonstrated but outcomes are still heterogeneous. Stereotactic radiotherapy allows treatment of small volumes with many narrow beams. Dedicated devices or appropriate equipment on classical devices are needed. In early stages, its efficacy is comparable to surgery with an acceptable toxicity. Endobronchial brachytherapy could be used for early stages with specific criteria. Hadrontherapy is still experimental regarding lung cancer. Hadrons have physical properties leading to very accurate dose distribution. In the rare published studies, toxicities are roughly lower than others techniques but for early stages its effectiveness is not better than stereotactic radiotherapy. These techniques are optimized by metabolic imaging which precisely defines the target volume and assesses the therapeutic response; image-guided radiation therapy which allows a more accurate patient set up and by respiratory tracking or gating which takes account of tumour respiratory motions.