Radiation Cancer Treatment

What is New in Radiation Cancer Treatment?

The medical community is making significant advances is radiation cancer treament thereapy. Here is an overview of some new techiques to talk to your doctor about if you or a loved one is being treated for cancer.

Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) delivers the radiation to the area of cancer directly during surgery. It is most often used in cases of abdominal or pelvic cancer treatment. It is also used in types of cancer that is more likely to return. Because it is administered during surgery, normal tissue can be moved out of the way for protection, thus reducing damage to healthy tissue nearby. While most IORT therepy is done in the radiation department of the hospital, some hospitals now have mobile IORT machines for a wider range of use.

Hyperthermia uses heat to kill cancer cells. At this point in time, when used alone, it does not kill enough cells to cure the cancer. The heat is created by ultrasound's microwaves. Used in combination with radiation, hyperthermia appears to enhance to success of the radiation cancer treaments.

Stereotactic Surgery or stereotactic radiation therepy targets a powerful, precise dose of radiation to a small turmor area. The term surgery may be misleading becuase no incision is made. Currently the techniques is being used primiarly to treat cancerous tumors in the brain. The treatment is delivered by a Gamma Knife or linear accelerator machine.

Conformal Proton Beam Radiation Therepy is a related technique used in cancer treatment. In this process proton beams are used instead of x-rays. Protons cause little damage to tissues as they pass through and are highly effective at killing cancer cells at the end of their path. Doctors are hoping that proton beam radiation will be able to delvier more radiation to the cancer while minimizing side effects on nearby tissues. Protons are parts of atoms that are finding more uses in cancer treament.

Three Dimensional Conformal Radiation Therepy precisely maps the location of the cancer using special computers. The radiation can be aimed at the cancer more accurately from several directions to reduce the damage to normal tissues and deliver a stronger dose of radiation to the cancer. Impact on long-term survival is not yet known.

Cancer Treament Planning

Planning is one of the most important parts of radiation cancer treatment and can often take days to complete. It is complex and is designed to plan the best techniquest to deliver the radiation to the cancer with the least damage to other tissue and fewer side effects.

The doctors will determing the exact method and dosage of radation based on the location and size of the cancerous turmor. There are many concerns taken into consideration including the identification of where the cancer is likely to spread. Once the plan is completed, cancer treatments are usually given on a daily bases, 5 days a week for about 5-7 weeks. For turmors that do not respond as effectively to the radiation, patients may be treated twice per day. This can increase the damage to the DNA of the cancer cells but the risk is that the side effects will show up sooner and be more severe.

Treatments last around 30 minutes and it is very important that they be done regularly and that the patient remain absolutely without motion or movement durning the cancer treatment.

Who Gives Radiation Treatments

There are several specialist involved in radiation cancer treatment.

The Radiation Onocologist is a doctor trained to to use radiation to treat the cancer. He or she is the doctor that will make the decisons reguarding overall treatment.

The Radiation Physicist makes sure the radiation equipment is working properly and most importantly that it is delivering the right amount of dosage prescribed by the doctor.

The Dosimetrist helps the doctor plan the number of treatments.

A Radiation Therapist or Technologist operates the radiation cancer treatment equipment.

The Radiation Therepy Nurse is a registered nurse with training in cancer treatment.He or she is very helpful in providing information on both treatment and how to deal with side effects.

The services of a Dietition, Physical Therepist, Dental Oncologist, other healthcare professionls and pastorial care may also involved in the cancer treatment process.

Cancer Treatment Side Effects

Each individual is different in terms of how he or she responds to radiation treatment. This is something that the doctors and nurses will cover with their patients in great detail. Some of the more common side effects we may all have heard or read about include fatique, damage to skin, temporary loss of hair, nusea, inflamtion of certain areas of the body being treated, and each type of cancer can have it's own range of side effects depending on location and type of cancer treatment used. Obviously some severe cases such as brain cancer may have more side effects that other less risky types of cancer treatments.

Radation therepy has improved significantly over the last few decades. Cancer treatments now target the cancers more precisely. Much more is known about the different types of treatments and doses required. While the risk of second cancers is now relatively low, they must be weighed against the usually positive benefits gained with the radiation therepy for cancer treatment.

 

 

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