Lung Cancer Treatment: Radiation
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Radiation Therapy for Lung Cancer
Your doctors at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) may recommend one of two forms of radiation therapy, external or internal, to help eliminate cancerous cells. Your lung cancer treatment team will work with you to determine which form of radiation therapy may be best for you.
CTCA uses four different radiation technologies for lung cancer treatment: 3D Conformal Radiation, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), TomoTherapy® and High-Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy.
Before external radiation begins, your radiation oncologist will work highly skilled, radiation therapy specialists to plan your lung cancer radiation treatment. They will measure the correct angles to aim the radiation beams at specific areas of your body to strike the tumor. With three-dimensional conformal radiation, computed tomography (CT) images help us to reconstruct the tumor and surrounding tissues in three dimensions. Then, multiple radiation beams are shaped to the contour of the treatment area.
During radiation therapy, high-energy X-ray beams focus on the area of the tumor in the affected lung. Over time, the radiation damages the DNA of the cancer cells, destroying and/or weakening them so they cannot reproduce. Each radiation lung cancer treatment lasts for a few minutes and is pain free. While radiation is administered, the radiation therapist leaves the room and monitors you on a close-circuit television. At any time, though, you are able to communicate with the radiation therapist over the intercom system.
If you are to undergo internal radiation therapy, it may be in the form of High-Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy. HDR brachytherapy for lung cancer treatment can minimize radiation exposure to healthy tissue that may surround your tumor. With this treatment, we are able to deliver a powerful dose of targeted radiation therapy within the tumor itself.
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