Introduction

Approximately 10% of patients of advanced cancer present with bleeding. This can be a distressing sight alike for patient and care givers. in a country like ours, this presentation is of particular value as about 40% patients present with advanced stage. Bleeding can present in many ways including hematemesis, haematochezia, melena, hemoptysis, haematuria, epistaxis, vaginal bleeding or ulcerated skin lesions. a majority of them resolve by pharmacological measures and compression dressings, for those which don’t resolve radiotherapy can be used. In such situations radiotherapy (RT) has been used with great effect. This review focuses on radiotherapy when used with haemostatic intent. Generally haemostatic RT is believed to be an effective treatment for patients with bleeding due to cancer. Relatively little published literature is available which focuses on bleeding control of haemostatic RT and even less is known about the optimal RT total dose and fractionation.

Keywords: Haemostasis, Apoptosis, Radiotherapy

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Shashank Shenoy

Department of Radiation Oncology, The Gujarat Cancer and Research Institute, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

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