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CANCER CARE
Radiation Oncology | About Treatment
Radiation is a proven method for treating many cancers, as well as certain non-cancerous conditions. Around 50 to 60 percent of cancer patients will receive some form of radiation during the course of their disease. Radiation can be used to cure or control cancer, and to reduce the severity of pain.
The first part of planning an individual's radiation treatment requires a simulation. This involves "mapping" the area that will be treated. The simulator in SwedishAmerican's Radiation Oncology department is a CT Scanner — a computerized X-ray machine that obtains images of an individual's internal structures at a specific body site. During the simulation, patients lay on a table in a position designated by the doctor. Every attempt is made to ensure patient comfort during the simulation, which takes about 10 minutes. Patients are not required to hold their breath, and there is no sensation that results from the simulation. Some marks will be placed on the patient to determine where future radiation treatments will be aimed. Following the simulation, patients are given an appointment time to come back and begin their actual radiation treatments.
 CT Scanner
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Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy X-rays and electrons beams that are targeted to damage the malignant cells, thus destroying the cancer's ability to grow. When a patient receives external-beam radiation therapy, the high-energy X-rays or electrons are directed from outside of the body, usually by a large machine called a linear accelerator. Radiation therapy is a local treatment. There is no pain associated with it; it is like having an X-ray picture taken, but the dose is stronger and given over a longer period of time. The radiation only affects the part of the body being treated.
 Linear Accelerator
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In 2005 SwedishAmerican began offering Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) to patients. IMRT uses a special computer program to alter the intensity of radiation within a field. This varying of the beam's intensity allows the delivery of higher doses to the tumor, while delivering smaller doses to surrounding normal tissue. The higher doses to the tumor or cancer area result in better control of the disease, while lower doses to surrounding normal tissues result in fewer side effects. IMRT treatment may not be appropriate for certain types of cancers.
 Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)
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With another form of radiation therapy, termed "brachytherapy," the radioactive sources can be placed on the body surface or surgically implanted inside the body. Some implants can be left inside a person forever, like seed implants for prostate cancer. Other types will need to be removed after a determined period of time by the oncologist. The advantage of brachytherapy is that it concentrates the dose of radiation nearer to the cancer and can lessen the chance of damage to normal tissue nearby. Types of implants are dependent on the size and location of the cancer.
 Mammosite Machine
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Mammosite is one of the latest advances for treatment of early stage breast cancer. This approach, which has become the most widely-accepted form of partial breast irradiation, gives patients the option of having treatment completed in five days, versus the usual six weeks of external beam radiation. A patient will receive two treatments per day for five days. At the end of five days, the balloon catheter is deflated and removed, and the patient has completed their entire course of radiation therapy. To qualify for this outpatient treatment, patients must have early stage, node negative breast cancer and meet certain other criteria.
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