ArticleThe British journal of radiology2021
Low-dose radiation therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia: a pilot study.
Article in The British journal of radiology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
28 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 46 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
- Low-Dose Whole Lung Irradiation for Treatment of COVID-19 Pneumonia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of radiation oncology, biology, physics · 2022Pooled it
- Treatment of COVID-19 pneumonia with low-dose radiotherapy plus standard of care versus standard of care alone in frail patients : The SEOR-GICOR IPACOVID comparative cohort trial.Strahlentherapie und Onkologie : Organ der Deutschen Rontgengesellschaft ... [et al] · 2023Trial
- 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
- Low-dose Radiation Therapy in the Management of COVID-19 Pneumonia (LOWRAD-Cov19). Final results of a prospective phase I-II trial.Radiotherapy and oncology : journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology · 2022Trial
- Trial
- 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
- The ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the clinical education of Australian medical radiation science students.Journal of medical radiation sciences · 2025Article
- 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
- Completion rates and myelosuppression degrees of cancer patients receiving radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy unchanged regardless of delay duration after Omicron infection.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Radiotherapy for non-cancer diseases: benefits and long-term risks.International journal of radiation biology · 2024Review
- Low-Dose Radiotherapy for Patients with Pneumonia Due to COVID-19: A Single-Institution Prospective Study.Biomedicines · 2023Article
- Low-dose radiotherapy for COVID-19 pneumonia and cancer: summary of a recent symposium and future perspectives.International journal of radiation biology · 2023Article
- The Paradox of COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa: Why it is More Unethical Not to Investigate Low Dose Radiotherapy for COVID-19.Journal of biomedical physics & engineering · 2022Article
- Impact of X-radiation in the management of COVID-19 disease.World journal of radiology · 2022Review
- 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
- Covid-19 and radiotherapy: a systematic review after 2 years of pandemic.Clinical and translational imaging · 2022Review
- Interim Analysis of Impact of Adding Low Dose Pulmonary Radiotherapy to Moderate COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients: IMpaCt-RT Study.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Article
- The immunology and immunotherapy for COVID-19.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2021Review
- COVID-19 and low-dose radiation therapy.Radiation medicine and protection · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
15 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesThe World Health Organization (WHO) has declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as pandemic in March 2020. Currently there is no specific effective treatment for COVID-19. The major cause of death in COVID-19 is severe pneumonia leading to respiratory failure. Radiation in low doses (<100 cGy) has been known for its anti-inflammatory effect and therefore, low dose radiation therapy (LDRT) to lungs can potentially mitigate the severity of pneumonia and reduce mortality. We conducted a pilot trial to study the feasibility and clinical efficacy of LDRT to lungs in the management of patients with COVID-19.
methodsFrom June to Aug 2020, we enrolled 10 patients with COVID-19 having moderate to severe risk disease [National Early Warning Score (NEWS) of ≥5]. Patients were treated as per the standard COVID-19 management guidelines along with LDRT to both lungs with a dose of 70cGy in single fraction. Response assessment was done based on the clinical parameters using the NEWS.
resultsAll patients completed the prescribed treatment. Nine patients had complete clinical recovery mostly within a period ranging from 3 to 7 days. One patient, who was a known hypertensive, showed clinical deterioration and died 24 days after LDRT. No patients showed the signs of acute radiation toxicity.
conclusionThe results of our pilot study suggest that LDRT is feasible in COVID-19 patients having moderate to severe disease. Its clinical efficacy may be tested by conducting randomized controlled trials. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: LDRT has shown promising results in COVID-19 pneumonia and should be researched further through randomized controlled trials.
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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.