Department of Advanced Radiation and Proton Therapy

Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy X-rays, electrons or other sources of radiation to treat diseases – usually cancer. It can also be used to treat noncancerous conditions, including blocked coronary arteries.

Radiation therapy works by damaging the genetic material within cancer cells. Once this happens, the cancer cells are not able to grow and spread. When these damaged cancer cells die, the body naturally removes them. Normal cells are also affected by radiation, but they can repair themselves in a way that cancer cells cannot. Your radiation oncologist will develop a plan to deliver the radiation to the tumor area, shielding as much surrounding normal tissue as possible.

Your radiation oncologist may recommend using radiation therapy to:

• Eliminate tumors that have not spread to other parts of your body
• Reduce the risk that cancer will return after you undergo surgery or chemotherapy by killing cancer cells that might remain
• Shrink the tumor before surgery
• Treat benign conditions

Sometimes, radiation therapy is used to reduce the symptoms caused by growing tumors and improve your quality of life. When radiation therapy is given for this purpose, it is called palliative care or palliation. In this instance, radiation therapy may be used to:

• Shrink tumors that are harming your quality of life, such as a lung tumor that is causing problems with breathing
• Relieve pain by reducing the size of a tumor

Radiation has been used successfully to treat patients for over 100 years. In that time, many advances have been made to ensure radiation therapy is safe and effective.

Before you begin radiation therapy, your radiation oncology team will carefully design your plan to make sure you receive safe and accurate treatment. Treatment will be carefully planned to focus on the cancer while avoiding healthy organs in the area. During your treatment, members of your team check and recheck your plan through repeat imaging and radiation patient chart review. The team will meet with you each week to assess your progress and monitor any unexpected side effects that are occurring.

The medical physicist will work with the team to develop an extensive safety and quality assurance plan to make sure the correct treatment is delivered in the safest possible way, every time. Dosimetrists use advanced computerized systems to carefully measure the dose of radiation patients receive to each critical area.

Radiation therapists expertly deliver treatments using specialized protocols designed to enhance safety. Radiation oncologists oversee every step of the entire process, focusing on safe and effective treatment for every patient.

If you undergo external beam radiation therapy, you will not be radioactive after treatment ends because the radiation does not stay in your body. However, if you undergo brachytherapy, tiny radioactive seeds may be implanted into your body. Your radiation oncologist will explain any special precautions you or your family may need to take following treatment to ensure the safety of those around you.

Radiation therapy can be delivered externally (using machines outside the body to direct radiation into the body), or internally (placing radioactive sources directly into body tissues or cavities, either temporarily or permanently).

Radiation therapy can be used alone or in combination with other treatment options including surgery, chemotherapy or immunotherapy.