Radiation Oncology

Radiation therapy may be delivered in one of the following forms:

External Beam
The most common type of radiation therapy, external beam radiation therapy is designed to target a specific part of your body. The treatment machines aim high-powered beams inside the body at cancer cells to prevent them from dividing.

A form of external beam therapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) breaks the radiation into thousands of thin beams to better target the cancer and minimize effects on surrounding tissue.
Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), one of the most cutting edge innovations in fighting cancer, combines imaging and treatment capabilities on a single machine.

Brachytherapy
Internal radiation therapy that involves radioactive sources injected or placed inside the body.

Other treatments include:

• Stereotactic radiosurgery – Uses a single large dose of radiation to treat brain and other tumor tissue
• Stereotactic radiotherapy – Delivers radiation to tissue, but uses multiple small fractions of radiation instead of one large dose
• 3D Conformal Radiation Therapy – Uses CT, MRI or PET technology to more precisely target tumors gauging width, height and depth; 4D conformal radiation therapy includes respiratory gating, which monitors the patient’s breathing and respiratory cycle to determine the exact moment to deliver the most effective radiation
• Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT) – Delivers radiation to tumors while they are exposed during surgery