What we are studying
The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of three different ways to give radiation therapy. Two of the ways are experimental, while one of them is standard. The two experimental ways of giving the radiation therapy are (1) once a day with a high dose of radiation for 7 weeks; or (2) once a day for 16 days of treatment (about 3 weeks), followed by twice a day for the remaining 9 days of treatment (about 2 weeks), for a total of 5 weeks. The standard way of giving the radiation therapy is to give it twice a day for 3 weeks. Everyone will get chemotherapy with the standard drugs for your type of cancer. It is not known what the added side effects are using this dose of chemotherapy with any of the three radiotherapy regimens.