ReviewStrahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al]2020
Low-dose radiation therapy for COVID-19 pneumopathy: what is the evidence?
Review in Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al], 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Low Dose Radiation Therapy for COVID-19 Pneumonia: Learnings of 4 Years Since Pandemic.Clinical and translational science · 2025Pooled it
- World's First Experience of the Low-Dose Radionuclide Inhalation Therapy in the Treatment of COVID-19-Associated Viral Pneumonia: Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial.Current radiopharmaceuticals · 2023Trial
- The clinical efficacy of low-dose whole-lung irradiation in moderate-to-severe COVID-19 pneumonia: RTMX-20 trial.Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology · 2022Trial
- Whole lung irradiation as a novel treatment for COVID-19: Interim results of an ongoing phase 2 trial in India.Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology · 2021Trial
- COVID-19 pneumonia treated with ultra-low doses of radiotherapy (ULTRA-COVID study): a single institution report of two cases.Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al] · 2021Trial
- Breakthrough Infection and Death after COVID-19 Vaccination: A Physics Perspective.Journal of biomedical physics & engineering · 2025Article
- From essential basic understanding to clinical application - biological, physical and pathophysiological principles of (low-dose) radiotherapy in benign diseases.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- Time Reveals the Truth! What Treatments for COVID-19 Were Quickly Abandoned, and Which Methods, Contrary to Popular Belief, Are Still Flourishing?Journal of biomedical physics & engineering · 2024Article
- Review
- Review
- The immunomodulatory properties of low-level ionizing radiation as a potential treatment for COVID-19's life-threatening symptoms.European journal of medical research · 2023Review
- Effect of Low-Dose Radiotherapy on the Circulating Levels of Paraoxonase-1-Related Variables and Markers of Inflammation in Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose and its Derivatives for the COVID-19 Treatment: An Update.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Covid-19 and radiotherapy: a systematic review after 2 years of pandemic.Clinical and translational imaging · 2022Review
- Low-dose radiation therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia: a pilot study.The British journal of radiology · 2021Article
- Pneumonia After Bacterial or Viral Infection Preceded or Followed by Radiation Exposure: A Reanalysis of Older Radiobiologic Data and Implications for Low-Dose Radiation Therapy for Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2021Article
- A Call to Action: "Low-Dose Radiation May Help Cure COVID-19…" [Taps Mic] "…Is This Thing On?"JNCI cancer spectrum · 2021Article
- Personal View: Low-Dose Lung Radiotherapy Should be Evaluated as a Treatment for Severe COVID-19 Lung Disease.Clinical oncology (Royal College of Radiologists (Great Britain)) · 2021Article
- Commonalities Between COVID-19 and Radiation Injury.Radiation research · 2021Review
- Radiotherapy and COVID-19-everything under control or just the start of a long story?Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al] · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In the current dismal situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, effective management of patients with pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome is of vital importance. Due to the current lack of effective pharmacological concepts, this situation has caused interest in (re)considering historical reports on the treatment of patients with low-dose radiation therapy for pneumonia. Although these historical reports are of low-level evidence per se, hampering recommendations for decision-making in the clinical setting, they indicate effectiveness in the dose range between 0.3 and 1 Gy, similar to more recent dose concepts in the treatment of acute and chronic inflammatory/degenerative benign diseases with, e.g., a single dose per fraction of 0.5 Gy. This concise review aims to critically review the evidence for low-dose radiation treatment of COVID-19 pneumopathy and discuss whether it is worth investigating in the present clinical situation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.