ABSTRACT
In solid adult tumours, owing to its limited biological efficacy, chemotherapy is very seldom used as a sole curative treatment modality. It is, however, used more and more in combination with curative treatments such as surgery and radiotherapy, at least for locally advanced diseases. Chemotherapy can be delivered before a local treatment in an induction or neo-adjuvant setting, it can be delivered during a local treatment (i.e. during the course of radiotherapy) in a concomitant setting, and it can be delivered after a local treatment in an adjuvant setting. The rationale for these various schedules of administration will be discussed in Section 18.2. Table 18.1 summarizes the evidence-based data supporting the combined use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the most common adult tumours.
