Radiation therapy
hideRadiation therapy (also radiotherapy or radiation oncology, sometimes abbreviated to XRT) is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells (not to be confused with radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis). Radiotherapy may be used for curative or adjuvant cancer treatment. It is used as palliative treatment (where cure is not possible and the aim is for local disease control or symptomatic relief) or as therapeutic treatment (where the therapy has survival benefit and it can be curative). Total body irradiation (TBI) is a radiotherapy technique used to prepare the body to receive a bone marrow transplant. Radiotherapy has several applications in non-malignant conditions, such as the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia, severe thyroid eye disease, pterygium, pigmented villonodular synovitis, prevention of keloid scar growth, and prevention of heterotopic ossification. The use of radiotherapy in non-malignant conditions is limited partly by worries about the risk of radiation-induced cancers.
Radiotherapy is used for the treatment of malignant tumors (cancer), and may be used as the primary therapy. It is also common to combine radiotherapy with surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or some mixture of the three. Most common cancer types can be treated with radiotherapy in some way. The precise treatment intent (curative, adjuvant, neoadjuvant, therapeutic, or palliative) will depend on the tumour type, location, and stage, as well as the general health of the patient.
Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumour. The radiation fields may also include the draining lymph nodes if they are clinically or radiologically involved with tumour, or if there is thought to be a risk of subclinical malignant spread. It is necessary to include a margin of normal tissue around the tumour to allow for uncertainties in daily set-up and internal tumor motion. These uncertainties can be caused by internal movement (for example, respiration and bladder filling) and movement of external skin marks relative to the tumour position.
To spare normal tissues (such as skin or organs which radiation must pass through in order to treat the tumour), shaped radiation beams are aimed from several angles of exposure to intersect at the tumour, providing a much larger absorbed dose there than in the surrounding, healthy tissue.
For more information about Radiation therapy, read the full article at
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News tagged with radiation oncology
Radiation therapy after lumpectomy for breast cancer can be safely reduced to 4 weeks
Nov 04, 2009 |
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Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center found that radiation treatment for women who had a lumpectomy for early-stage breast cancer can be safely reduced to four weeks, instead of the usual six to seven weeks, by delivering ...
Does race, income predict prostate cancer outcome?
Nov 04, 2009 |
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A patient's socioeconomic status (income, martial status and race) has absolutely no impact on his outcome following curative radiation therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer, according to a new study from Henry Ford ...
Cancer patients want honesty, compassion from their oncologist
Nov 04, 2009 |
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What do patients want from their radiation oncologists? The most significant preference is that more than one-third of female cancer patients (37 percent) prefer to have their hands held by their radiation oncologists during ...
Study finds it's safe to treat HER2-positive breast cancer with trastuzumab and adjuvant radiation
Nov 03, 2009 |
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Standard adjuvant treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer patients, following primary surgery for their cancer, is Trastuzumab (Herceptin)--typically used in combination with chemotherapy. However, a new study by researchers ...
PET imaging before radiation not ideal for determining boost radiation doses
Nov 03, 2009 |
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(PHILADELPHIA) Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of non-small cell lung cancer prior to receiving radiation therapy should not be the basis for determining areas that may benefit from higher doses of radiation, according ...
Fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy reduces vision loss in optic nerve sheath meningiomas
Nov 03, 2009 |
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Optic nerve sheath meningiomas are rare tumors that are traditionally treated with surgery, which is typically a blinding procedure. However, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital have found that a specialized ...
Task force develops new radiation guidelines for brachytherapy
Nov 03, 2009 |
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Radiation dose delivered to the prostate and nearby organs in every brachytherapy procedure should be carefully analyzed using post-implant CT or MRI and uniformly documented in every patient, according to a new guideline ...
Preventative brain radiation for lung cancer patients: Benefits and risks
Nov 02, 2009 |
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A new study is taking a closer look at the benefits versus risks for lung cancer patients to undergo preventative brain radiation therapy as a means to stop cancer from spreading to the brain.
Obesity significantly increases side effects of stereotactic body radiation therapy in lung cancer patients
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Obesity, not the amount of radiation given, is the greatest factor in whether early-stage lung cancer patients develop chest wall pain after receiving stereotactic body radiation therapy to the chest wall, with obese patients ...
Adapting space-industry technology to treat breast cancer
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Researchers at Rush University Medical Center and Argonne National Laboratory are collaborating on a study to determine if an imaging technique used by NASA to inspect the space shuttle can be used to predict tissue damage ...
Gamma knife treatment for glioblastomas shows promising results
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Researchers from University Hospitals Case Medical Center report promising results from a cutting-edge research study that treated the aggressive brain tumors glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) using a novel type of imaging called ...
Stereotactic radiosurgery as effective in eliminating Parkinson's disease tremors as other treatments but less invasive
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) offers a less invasive way to eliminate tremors caused by Parkinson's disease and essential tremor than deep brain stimulation (DBS) and radiofrequency (RF) treatments, and is as effective, ...
One scan per patient is not always enough
Oct 19, 2009 |
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Seven medical imaging groups wrote a joint letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to formally request coverage of two fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) scans for a patient ...
Although more older women receive breast-conserving therapy, gaps in treatment exist
Oct 09, 2009 |
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According to a new study published in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, although breast-conserving surgery (BCS), commonly known as lumpectomy, is increasingly being used to treat older ...
Women with breast cancer have low vitamin D levels
Oct 09, 2009 |
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Women with breast cancer should be given high doses of vitamin D because a majority of them are likely to have low levels of vitamin D, which could contribute to decreased bone mass and greater risk of fractures, according ...
