Timothy J. Kinsella, MD

Drs. Pu, Robertson, and Lawrence provide a concise update of recent laboratory and clinical studies of fluoropyrimidine radiosensitization. From a clinical perspective, one can conclude that this drug-radiation interaction appears to be greater than additive and clearly has resulted in significant therapeutic gains, particularly for gastrointestinal cancers, as summarized in Tables 2 and 3 of their article. From a laboratory perspective, the focus has now shifted to trying to better understand the mechanisms of the interaction as related to molecular events at the G1/S interphase and in early S phase.