Radiation-induced kidney injury

Implication for health policy/practice/research/medical education: Radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy for pelvic malignancies such as gastrointestinal cancers, gynecologic cancers, lymphomas, and sarcomas of the upper abdomen and during total body irradiation may result in radiation-induced kidney injury. The incidence of clinical radiation nephropathy has increased with the use of total-body irradiation in preparation for bone marrow transplantation. Radiation nephropathy usually manifests as proteinuria, hypertension and impairment in urine concentration. The precise pathogenic mechanisms and/or mediators involved in radiation nephropathy remain under active investigation. However, radiation nephropathy is no longer viewed as inevitable, progressive, and untreatable.