Specialties

What is Radiation Therapy?

Radiation therapy uses a stream of high-energy particles or waves, such as x-rays, gamma rays, and electrons to destroy or damage cancer cells.

Radiation therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer and is used in more than half of all cancer cases. Thousands of people become free of cancer after receiving radiation treatments alone or in combination with surgery, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy. Doctors can also use radiation therapy before surgery to shrink a tumor so that it can be removed more easily, or after surgery to stop the growth of any cancer cells that remain.

How does radiation therapy work?

Cells in the body, cancerous and healthy, grow and divide. But cancer cells grow and divide more rapidly than many of the normal cells around them. Radiation therapy uses special equipment to deliver high doses of radiation to cancerous tumors, killing or damaging them so that they cannot grow, multiply or spread.

How is radiation therapy given?

It is given in two ways: externally and internally.
External radiation (or external beam radiation)—requires a machine that directs high-energy rays at the cancer and some normal surrounding tissue. Most people receive external radiation therapy as an outpatient at the hospital or treatment center.

Internal radiation (also known as brachytherapy)—uses a radioactive source in the form of a wire or pellet that is sealed in a small container called an implant. The implant is placed directly into or near the tumor. Sometimes, after a tumor has been removed by surgery, radioactive implants are placed in the surgical bed to eradicate any remaining cancer cells. Implants may be permanent or temporary.

Specialty Therapies

Services unique to Radiation Oncologist, P.C. include Novalis Shaped Beam radiosurgery, high dose rate brachytherapy (HDR), and partial breast irradiation. In Oregon, we were the first to offer, and have the greatest experience in:

High dose rate brachytherapy—Brachytherapy is a method by which a radioactive source is placed in the part of the body that is to be treated and a high dose of radiation is given to a very limited area. The advantage of brachytherapy over external beam irradiation is that the dose is concentrated in a small area. The volume of tissue that is treated is limited, and the surrounding normal tissue receives a lower dose of radiation than with external beam irradiation. High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is an innovative form of internal radiotherapy (radiation treatments), given on an outpatient basis using a high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy machine.

Prostate brachytherapy—Is an outpatient surgical procedure in which under anesthesia and with precise ultrasound guidance, an array of needles are placed throughout the prostate to distribute seeds that evenly irradiate the prostate gland while sparing surrounding normal tissue. This technique provides highly successful outcomes comparable to surgery while minimizing some of its risks.

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)—Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, or IMRT, is a state-of-the-art radiation delivery system considered by some to be the most significant breakthrough in radiation treatments in the past 30 years. It combines 3-D imaging with the ability to conform radiation beams and deliver higher radiation doses to tumors. IMRT allows Radiation Oncologists to more safely treat tumors located close to delicate organs, such as tumors in the spine, head, neck, prostate, lung, liver, and brain, and minimize side effects.

Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) — Image Guided Radiation Therapy works by combining and integrating X-ray scanning with precise radiation therapy during the actual time of treatment, allowing the radiation team to deliver treatment with a high degree of accuracy while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. IGRT uses accurate, real-time 3-D image information, allowing for the most precise treatment delivery, all from the same system. It is effective on many types of cancers and is especially suited for cancers of the prostate, head/neck and lung.