A Universal and Highly Effective Cancer Treatment
Half of cancer patients will have radiation therapy at some stage in their cancer journey.
Over 40% of cures are associated with radiation therapy.
Non-invasive Care
- Radiation therapy is the use of carefully planned, precisely targeted high energy x-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumours.
- It is a non-invasive, outpatient treatment, meaning patients typically feel well enough to travel to and from appointments on their own.
- Many people continue their normal routines, and even work, whilst undergoing radiation therapy.
How Radiation Therapy Works
Video courtesy of the Irish Cancer Society.
What Patients Should Expect
Here, a radiation therapist from SLRON explains what a patient can expect throughout their radiation therapy journey.
Video courtesy of the Irish Cancer Society.
A Personalised Treatment Approach
- Using each patient’s CT planning scan, a customised treatment plan is developed to precisely target their individual cancer.
- This approach helps protect as much healthy tissue as possible, reducing side effects while delivering an effective dose to the tumour.
- A team of medical physicists, radiation therapists, and consultant radiation oncologists work together to design and verify each plan, ensuring the highest level of accuracy and safety.
- Advanced motion-management techniques track a patient’s breathing and natural movement with millimetre precision during each treatment session, maintaining consistency and precision throughout their course of care.
- Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) further supports this personalised approach. During VMAT, the treatment machine rotates around the patient, delivering high-dose radiation while continuously adapting the beam’s shape and intensity to match the unique contours of the tumour.
Stereotactic Ablative Radiation Therapy (SABR)
- SABR is a non-surgical form of cancer treatment which can be used to effectively destroy small tumours in the body.
- It involves larger than usual doses of extremely targeted radiation delivered in fewer treatment hospital visits, usually 3-5 visits but some patients can be fully treated in a single treatment session.
- It is an outpatient treatment and the side-effects are so few that patients can walk in and out of the hospital after their treatment which takes roughly 45 minutes.
A Non-Surgical Form of Cancer Treatment
Here the team in Cork University Hospital further explain about SABR treatment:
Video courtesy of Breakthrough Cancer Research.