Low-Dose Radiotherapy For Patients With SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) Pneumonia

Low doses of radiation in the form of chest x-rays has been in the past to treat people with pneumonia. This treatment was thought to reduce inflammation and was found to be effective without side effects. However, it was an expensive treatment and was eventually replaced with less expensive treatment options like penicillin. The COVID-19 virus has emerged recently, causing high rates of pneumonia in people. The authors believe that giving a small dose of radiation to the lungs may reduce inflammation and neutralize the pneumonia caused by COVID-19. For this study, the x-ray given is called radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-ray beams from a large machine to target the lungs and reduce inflammation. Usually, it is given at much higher doses to treat cancers. The purpose of this study is to find out if adding a single treatment of low-dose x-rays to the lungs might reduce the amount of inflammation in the lungs from COVID-19 infection, which could reduce the need for a ventilator or breathing tube.