Cancer :: Radiation Therapy – What Is It and What Kind Of Cancer Can Be Treated With It? ::
(248 Reads)More than half of all cancer patients will be treated at some time during their illness with radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses energy to kill cancer cells and cause tumors to shrink. Radiation therapy destroys cells in the area that has cancer. It kills the cells through damaging their genetic make up, inhibiting these cells from being able to continue to grow and divide. Radiation can damage normal cells; however normal cells can survive the effects of radiation and continue to survive.
There are three basic types of radiation therapy:
· External-beam radiation therapy
This type of cancer treatment is done without the cancer doctor having to break the skin or create an incision in the patient's body. This type of cancer treatment employs large machine which aims a beam the radiation directly at the tumor. The surgeon marks the precise area where the cancer has been found with surgical ink. The cancer surgeon then aims the radiation at the ink mark and destroys the cancer cells. External radiation treatments usually are performed several times a week for one to two months.
· Brachytherapy
Unlike external-beam radiation therapy, this type of therapy is used to treat the cancer from the inside. In this type of cancer treatment, the cancer cells are bombarded with tiny radiation seeds. This is often considered the best treatment for early-stage cancer. The cancer surgeon uses needles are to insert the seeds through the patient's skin and into the diseased part of the patient's body or in the general area of the cancer. When the needles are removed, they leave the radiation seeds behind, tucked inside of the diseased area. The radioactive seeds stay inside the gland releasing the radioactivity needed to destroy the cancer cells. The seeds are not removed but continue to release radiation for some time after they are inserted.
· Systemic Radiation Therapy
Systemic radiation therapy uses radioactive iodine 131 or strontium 89 to destroy cancers cells, usually types of cancer associated with thyroid disease or lymphoma. The radioactive iodine 131 or strontium 89 is taken orally or administered by injection.
There are many more types of radiation therapies depending upon what type of cancer the patient has, however these forms of radiation therapy are derived from the three basic types of therapies described above. The type of cancer a patient has determines what form of radiation therapy that he will have. Other forms of radiation therapy include: intraluminal radiation therapy, Interstitial radiation therapy, Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI), Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT), palliative radiation therapy, and prophylactic radiation therapy amoung others.
Types of cancers treated by radiation therapy include:
- Head and Neck Tumors
- Certain Types of Brain Cancer
- Prostate
- Cervix
- Ovary
- Breast
- Perianal Regions
- Pelvic Regions
- Bronchial
- Cervical
- Gallbladder
- Oral
- Rectal
- Tracheal
- Uterine
- Vaginal
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