Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. To whom all correspondence should be addressed: Edison Biotechnology Institute. Ohio University. Building 25, The Ridges. Athens, OH Phone: Fax: Radiotherapy is one of the major options currently for cancer treatment. Radiotherapy causes cellular damage inducing cell death, which is expected to be selective for tumor cells. However, side effects that alter the surrounding normal tissue are often hard to be avoided.
When radiation involves the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, growth hormone deficiency GHD is frequently induced, causing developmental and metabolic-related diseases in childhood cancer survivors.
Growth hormone GH replacement therapy has been used for these patients and has been shown to be safe in general. However, there are some debating for its long-term safety due to the known roles of GH in inducing cell growth, which could be related to cancer recurrence. In addition, studies have shown that GH is involved in the development of resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy through various mechanisms.
In this review, we will first discuss the effects of GHD induced after radiotherapy, and the safety of the GH replacement treatment. Besides surgery, two main options of treatment for cancer currently available are chemotherapy and radiation therapy RT , which can be combined. Free radicals that are produced in the cells after treatment with ionizing radiation are well known to cause cellular damage including DNA breakage, with the final goal of causing the death of cancer cells.
However, besides cancer cells, normal cells in the vicinity of the irradiated target areas are also affected. The manner in which cells respond to ionizing radiation depends on the dose received and characteristics, such as the rate of cell division and the cellular capacity of DNA damage repair Baskar et al.
