Severe Lymphopenia During Neoadjuvant Chemoradiation for Esophageal Cancer: A Propensity Matched Analysis of the Relative Risk of Proton versus Photon-Based Radiation Therapy

摘要

Background and PurposeCirculating lymphocytes are exquisitely sensitive to radiation exposure, even to low scattered doses which can vary drastically between radiation modalities. We compared the relative risk of radiation-induced lymphopenia between Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) or Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) in esophageal cancer (EC) patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (nCRT).