Irradiation of Varying Volumes of Rat Lung to Same Mean Lung Dose: a Little to a Lot or a Lot to a Little?

The lung volume irradiated to small doses might be the dominant factor influencing the loss of pulmonary function in the rat model of radiation-induced lung injury. Caution should be used when new radiotherapy techniques that result in irradiation of large volumes of normal tissue are used for the treatment of lung cancer and other tumors in the thorax.