Hyperfractionation in radiotherapy is defined as delivering what?

• A. Smaller doses per fraction more than once daily
• B. Larger doses per fraction once daily
• C. The same dose per fraction but fewer fractions
• D. Continuous low-dose infusion

Answer: (A)

Hyperfractionation means delivering smaller doses per treatment and doing so more than once daily. The idea is to lower the amount given in each fraction to spare normal tissues—especially late-responding tissues that are more sensitive to fraction size—while increasing the total dose over the course of therapy to boost tumor control. In practice, this often means two (or more) smaller fractions per day rather than one larger fraction.

The other approaches describe different schemes: a larger dose per fraction once daily is conventional fractionation with less total dose; the same dose per fraction but fewer fractions is hypofractionation (fewer, bigger doses); continuous low-dose infusion isn’t the standard external-beam fractionation pattern used for hyperfractionation.