title: Pattern of use of radiotherapy for lung cancer: a descriptive study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lung cancer remains one of the most prevalent forms of cancer. Radiotherapy, with or without other therapeutic modalities, is an effective treatment. Our objective was to report on the use of radiotherapy for lung cancer, its variability in our region, and to compare our results with the previous study done in 2004 (VARA-I) in our region and with other published data.
  
  
  METHODS
  We reviewed the clinical records and radiotherapy treatment sheets of all patients undergoing radiotherapy for lung cancer during 2007 in the 12 public hospitals in Andalusia, an autonomous region of Spain. Data were gathered on hospital, patient type and histological type, radiotherapy treatment characteristics, and tumor stage.
  
  
  RESULTS
  610 patients underwent initial radiotherapy. 37% of cases had stage III squamous cell lung cancer and were treated with radical therapy. 81% of patients with non-small and small cell lung cancer were treated with concomitant chemo-radiotherapy and the administered total dose was ≥60 Gy and ≥45 Gy respectively. The most common regimen for patients treated with palliative intent (44.6%) was 30 Gy. The total irradiation rate was 19.6% with significant differences among provinces (range, 8.5-25.6%; p<0.001). These differences were significantly correlated with the geographical distribution of radiation oncologists (r=0.78; p=0.02). Our results were similar to other published data and previous study VARA-I.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results shows no differences according to the other published data and data gathered in the study VARA-I. There is still wide variability in the application of radiotherapy for lung cancer in our setting that significantly correlates with the geographical distribution of radiation oncologists.
authors.affiliation: Radiation Oncology Department, Virgen de las Nieves Universitary Hospital, Granada, Spain. aris.tovar@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tovar
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Expósito
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jaén
authors.forename: Enrique
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alonso
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martínez
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guerrero
authors.forename: Juan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Arrebola
authors.forename: Rosario
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Del Moral
mesh_terms: D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain; D016896:Treatment Outcome