Radiation therapy complications leading to critical illness

Radiation therapy represents an important and effective tool in the management of oncologic emergencies, such as spinal cord compression, uncontrolled pain or bleeding, and superior vena cava syndrome. Radiation acts by inducing DNA damage within cancer cells, thereby reducing or eliminating metastatic lesions that are the source of the aforementioned emergent situations. Recent years have seen the advancement of highly conformal radiation techniques which enable better sparing of surrounding normal tissues, and there are several modalities of radiation therapy that are routinely employed in the critical care setting. This chapter will discuss the role of radiation therapy in oncologic emergencies.