Radiation therapy is a cornerstone in cancer treatment, utilizing high-energy radiation to target and destroy cancer cells. Over the years, advancements in technology have led to the development of various sophisticated techniques, each tailored to enhance precision, efficacy, and patient safety. Dr. Prapul Kumar Mandari, a Senior Consultant Radiation Oncologist at Renova Century Hospitals in Hyderabad, specializes in these advanced methods, offering personalized treatment plans to his patients.
Types of Radiation Therapy:
Radical Radiation:
- This approach involves administering high doses of radiation with the intent to cure cancer and prolong the patient's life.
Adjuvant Radiation:
- Given after the primary treatment modality, such as surgery, to eliminate microscopic disease and prevent recurrence.
Neoadjuvant Radiation Therapy:
- Administered as the initial step to reduce tumor size, making it more amenable to subsequent surgical intervention.
Palliative Radiation:
- Aims to control and alleviate cancer symptoms, thereby improving the patient's quality of life. It's often used to relieve bone pain, spinal cord compression, superior vena cava (SVC) obstruction, or bleeding from tumors.
Advanced Radiation Therapy Techniques:
3DCRT (3-Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy):
- Utilizes advanced technology to deliver high doses of radiation from various angles, precisely targeting cancer cells while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissues. A computer creates a 3-D image of the tumor to guide treatment.
IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy):
- An advanced form of conformal radiotherapy that uses computer-controlled linear accelerators to deliver precise radiation doses directly to the tumor. It divides the treatment field into multiple segments, employing various beam angles to target the tumor accurately, thereby protecting healthy tissue.
IGRT (Image Guided Radiotherapy):
- An enhancement of IMRT, IGRT is particularly useful for tumors in areas prone to movement, such as the lungs. It incorporates computer-generated images before each radiation dose to ensure precise accuracy, using scans and X-rays to visualize the cancer's size, shape, and position, ensuring correct patient positioning during treatment.
Tomotherapy:
- Combines IMRT and IGRT to accurately confirm the tumor's size and position before administering treatment. This method delivers precise radiation beams to destroy or shrink tumors, especially those located in sensitive or hard-to-reach areas of the body.
SRS (Stereotactic Radiosurgery):
- A non-surgical procedure that uses 3-D computerized imaging to deliver highly focused radiation beams to a precise location in a single session, minimizing impact on surrounding healthy tissues. It's used to treat small tumors and various issues in the liver, lungs, and other body parts, as well as functional abnormalities of the brain.
SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy):
- Similar to SRS but typically used for body tumors outside the brain. It delivers high doses of radiation with sub-millimeter precision over fewer sessions, making it suitable for small, well-defined tumors.
Brachytherapy:
- Also known as internal radiation therapy, this technique involves placing radioactive material directly within or adjacent to the tumor. It's used to treat various cancers, including prostate, skin, breast, uterine, cervical, and eye cancers. Depending on the tumor's stage and location, these implants can be temporary or permanent.
Total Body Irradiation (TBI):
- A form of radiation therapy where the entire body is exposed to radiation. It's often used as part of the conditioning regimen before a bone marrow or stem cell transplant.
Total Skin Electron Therapy (TSET):
- A specialized technique primarily used to treat cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and mycosis fungoides. Low-energy electrons target and destroy cancer cells in the skin, with sensitive areas protected during treatment to prevent side effects.