Protective effect of amifostine during fractionated radiotherapy in patients with pelvic carcinomas: results of a randomized trial.

Purpose: To evaluate whether pretreatment with amifostine can reduce treatment-induced toxicity in patients with pelvic malignancies undergoing radiotherapy (RT).

Methods And Materials: A total of 205 patients with pelvic malignancies (rectal, 32; bladder, 47; prostate, 40; gynecologic, 86) were randomized to receive RT (Group 1, n = 95) or RT plus amifostine (Group 2, n = 110). The patient characteristics for both treatment groups were well balanced.