QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF HEAD AND NECK TREATMENT PLANS FOR INTENSITY MODULATED RADIATION THERAPY

Modern radiotherapy technologies, like intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) allows to irradiate tumor with a higher dose per treatment, at the same time reducing exposure to the critical organs, thus avoiding acute reactions, like dry mouth, swallowing problems, and etc. Therefore, still the main challenge of external beam radiotherapy for head and neck cancer is to protect irradiation of organs at risk, within limits of the tolerance dose level, determining the possible risks of early and late reactions, while evaluation irradiation of the tumour let us to determine efficiency of the treatment outcome, assuring local tumor control. A brief analysis of critical organs and tumor irradiation processes determines patient's quality of life and survival.