External Beam Radiation for Melanoma
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Melanoma Treatment: External Beam Radiation
At Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA), external beam radiation therapy may be used in addition to treatments such as surgery to remove the melanoma and adjuvant chemotherapy to help you fight melanoma.
Experienced radiation therapists at CTCA use a linear accelerator (a high-energy X-ray machine) to administer this commonly used form of radiotherapy. The machine aims a beam of radiation from outside of your body onto the cancerous tissue within your body. Each treatment takes just a few minutes to be delivered, and is usually given five days a week, over a course of six to eight weeks.
Undergoing external beam radiation therapy poses no risk of radioactivity to you or others with whom you have contact.
One of the advantages of receiving this therapy is that you can remain an outpatient throughout your treatment. In addition, radiation does not carry the standard risks or complications that accompany major surgery, such as surgical bleeding, post-operative pain or the risk of stroke, heart attack or blood clot. Furthermore, the procedure itself causes no pain.
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