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 radiotherapy
Drug shrinks lung cancer tumors in mice
Nov 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A potential new drug for lung cancer has eliminated tumours in 50% of mice in a new study published today in the journal Cancer Research. In the animals, the drug also stopped lung cancer ...
Stem cells restore cognitive abilities impaired by brain tumor treatment, study finds
Nov 09, 2009 |
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Human embryonic stem cells could help people with learning and memory deficits after radiation treatment for brain tumors, suggests a new UC Irvine study.
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 ...
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 ...
Researchers use trident laser to accelerate protons to record energies
Nov 02, 2009 |
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An international team of physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory has succeeded in using intense laser light to accelerate protons to energies never before achieved. Using this technique, scientists can ...
Adding tools against breast tumors
Oct 27, 2009 |
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At the end of a 10-year, coast-to-coast study of women with an unusual form of breast cancer, Richard J. Barth Jr., M.D., and three fellow researchers are making the case for a particular combination of treatments to stop ...
Surviving breast cancer -- low-income females worst hit
Oct 14, 2009 |
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Later diagnosis, less first-course treatment and race are the main reasons for the difference in mortality between rich and poor breast cancer patients. A new study, published in the open access journal BMC Cancer, sugges ...
Research points to potential chink in cancer's armor
Oct 06, 2009 |
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Scientists at the University of York have identified and successfully silenced a gene that appears essential to cancer cell survival.
Researchers find few side effects from radiation treatment given after prostate cancer surgery
Sep 28, 2009 |
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The largest single-institution study of its kind has found few complications in prostate cancer patients treated with radiotherapy after surgery to remove the prostate. Men in this study received radiotherapy after a prostate-specific ...
Whole-brain radiotherapy after surgery or radiosurgery not recommended for brain metastases
Sep 22, 2009 |
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Berlin, Germany: Whole-brain radiotherapy should not be given routinely to all patients whose cancer has spread to the brain, say researchers who found that using it after surgery or radiosurgery in patients with a limited ...
Blood-flow metabolism mismatch predicts pancreatic tumor aggressiveness
Aug 25, 2009 |
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Researchers from Turku, Finland, have identified a blood-flow glucose consumption mismatch that predicted pancreatic tumor aggressiveness, according to results of a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the ...
Chinese women join global breast cancer trial
Jul 30, 2009 |
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Breast cancer patients have for the first time been recruited from China to take part in an international trial of breast radiotherapy.
Medical physicists describe hybrid Linac-MRI system
Jul 27, 2009 |
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Canadian scientists at the University of Alberta's Cross Cancer Institute are developing a new technology that integrates two existing medical devices -- medical linear accelerators, or "linacs," which produce powerful X-rays ...
As health goes awry, doctor-patient relationship more than a nicety
Jul 07, 2009 |
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The cornerstone of a good doctor-patient relationship begins with the doctor's ability to clarify a patient's preferences and values, especially during a difficult diagnosis, a commentary in the Journal of the American Me ...
Radioactive skin patch can treat cancer
Jun 15, 2009 |
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A new study shows that a radioactive skin patch can safely and successfully treat basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of skin cancers, according to researchers at the SNM's 56th Annual Meeting. The skin patch, ...
