External Beam Radiation Therapy for Laryngeal Cancer

Laryngeal Cancer Treatment: External Beam Radiation

External beam radiation therapy is a common form of radiotherapy used for laryngeal cancer treatment at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA). This particular radiation therapy is known as “external beam” because it directs a beam of radiation from outside your body onto cancerous internal organs and/or tissue within your body. The high-energy beam of radiation helps to destroy or shrink laryngeal cancer cells.

External beam radiation procedures last only a few minutes at a time, and are usually performed five days a week, over the course of six to eight weeks. Depending on your unique needs as a patient, external beam radiation may be recommended as the sole method of conventional medical treatment for your laryngeal cancer. Or, your oncologist may advise combining this treatment with surgery or chemotherapy.

Continuous advances in radiation treatment, planning and delivery enable CTCA radiation oncologists to more accurately target laryngeal cancer tumors with higher doses of radiation, while minimizing damage to healthy laryngeal tissue.

Of note, external beam radiation therapy poses no risk of radioactivity to you or others whom you have contact with during laryngeal cancer treatment at CTCA. You may continue normal activities with family and friends.

Advantages of external beam radiation therapy include:

• This radiation therapy is an outpatient procedure that does not carry the standard risks or serious complications that accompany other laryngeal cancer treatments, such as major surgery.
• The external beam radiation therapy procedure itself causes no pain.

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