Low dose radiation therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia: is there any supportive evidence?

The risk of induced cancer and ischemic heart disease following low dose lung irradiation for COVID-19: estimation based on a virtual case

“… 2020 ; Salomaa, Cardis, et al. 2020 ). This caution may be kept in mind when evaluating the present results.…”

“… 2020 ; Salomaa, Cardis, et al. 2020 ). There are currently fifteen prospective studies being carried out to assess the role of low dose RT in COVID-19 patients.…”

Low-dose radiotherapy (LD-RT) for COVID-19-induced pneumopathy: a worth considering approach

“…The high prevalence rate of the disease, its severe condition, and patients' reliance on anti-inflammatory drugs and painkillers to improve their living conditions have led to continued efforts to find an appropriate treatment for the disease. Ionizing radiation seems to be a valuable approach to the treatment of this disorder, as a considerable proportion of patients with the painful degenerative joint disorder and periarthritis of the shoulder were obtained acceptable results after administration of LD-RT (Seegenschmiedt M et al 2015;Salomaa et al 2020). The administration of 3-6 Gy at a rate of 0.35-1 Gy/session in painful knee osteoarthritis could mitigate 60-70% of pain in this disease (Glatzel et al 2004).…”

“…The opposite studies also indicated that the antiinflammatory property of LD-RT may disrupt the immune responses fighting against COVID-19 and prolong virus elimination (Kefayat and Ghahremani 2020). Additionally, the lack of data from clinical and experimental studies on viral pneumonia makes it difficult to accurately determine the radiation dose and timing for COVID-19 patients (Salomaa et al 2020). Kirsch et al suggested that due to the weak preclinical data testing the efficacy of LD-RT in animal models of viral pneumonia and the lack of appropriate clinical trials, it is not safe to expose COVID-19 patients to the risks of radiation.…”

Re: Low-dose radiation therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia: is there any supportive evidence?

“…This letter addresses our concerns regarding a paper by Salomaa et al entitled 'Low dose radiation therapy for COVID-19 pneumonia: is there any supportive evidence?' published in International Journal of Radiation Biology (Salomaa et al 2020). The authors believe that the body of evidence for a proposed beneficial effect of low dose radiation on viral pneumonia is limited.…”