The use of pyrimidine analogues in radiotherapy

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Abstract
It is well established that several halogenated analogues of thymidine and cytidine are able to sensitise both bacterial and mammalian cells to the lethal effects of X-irradiation. The fact that these analogues are only incorporated into cells which are actively synthesising DNA, and that many tumours are thought to have a shorter cell cycle time than that of the cells of their surrounding normal tissues (and therefore synthesise DNA more frequently), has led to the hope that preferential sensitisation of the tumour cells relative to the cells of the contiguous normal tissue might be achieved by the radiotherapist.