Background: Considerable controversy exists about the safety and efficacy of second re-irradiations (three courses of radiotherapy to overlapping volumes). Therefore, all published clinical studies were reviewed.
Material and methods: Contemporary and historical articles were identified. Outcomes such as survival, local control, symptom improvement and side effects were extracted. Contemporary results were grouped by anatomical location of the re-irradiated region in the body.
Results: Most data were derived from central nervous system tumors, pelvic tumors and bone metastases. We could include nine contemporary, retrospective studies with 2-25 patients each. Nearly, all patients were treated with palliative intent. Most of the prescribed re-irradiation regimens were highly individualized and thus difficult to compare. Symptomatic responses were recorded in most patients. In palliatively treated patients with pelvic and bony target volumes, high-grade toxicity was uncommon.
Conclusions: Despite of issues related to study size, length of follow-up and calculation of lifetime cumulative equivalent dose, the available data provide an initial framework for future studies and discussion of dose constraints. Selected dose-fractionation regimens may result in a satisfactory therapeutic ratio even after two previous courses of radiotherapy, if these were well tolerated.