Progression of Anti-oxygen Therapy in Radiation-Induced Lung Injury

Abstract

Radiation induced lung injury (RILI) is a serious complication in patients received thoracic radiotherapy. The main clinical symptom of RILI includes short of breath, low fever and cough, seriously affect the survival of patients. How to better prevent and treat RILI is an urgent problem. Target theory, cytokine theory, free radical theory, and vascular endothelial cell damage theory are the main mechanisms of RILI. Among them, reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced during radiotherapy can induce tissue damage throughout the course of RILI, and have a direct effect on both radiation pneumonitis and radiation-induced lung fibrosis. Anti-oxygen therapy including thiol compounds, antioxidant enzymes, and plant antioxidants have been applied in the prevention and treatment of RILI. This article reviews the research and application of antioxidant therapy in RILI.

Keywords

• Reactive oxygen species
• Anti-oxygen therapy
• Radiation-induced lung injury
• Radiation protection