Treatment types
Radiotherapy
Treatments
How does it work?
Radiotherapy destroys the cancer cells in the treated area by damaging the DNA within these cells. Although normal cells are also affected by radiation, they are better at repairing themselves than the cancer cells.
Radiotherapy is often delivered in several small doses, over a specified period of days or weeks. The prescription written by your doctor will define the dose and number of treatments (fractions).
Both short and long-term side-effects are possible and these will be thoroughly discussed with you prior to starting treatment as part of the consent process.
There are a number of different radiotherapy treatments. Your doctors will recommend the best one for you depending on the cancer you have and your individual circumstances.
The following treatments are provided at the cancer centre:
Superficial Radiotherapy
Superficial treatment is used to treat lesions that do not require a dose of radiation to a great depth, such as skin and bone cancers or scars. This type of treatment can be given using either kilo-voltage X-rays on the superficial machine, or using electrons on a linac.
Sometimes a thin lead shield may be placed near the area to be treated in order to protect any healthy tissue. The machine is fitted with an applicator which is moved to rest gently over the treatment area. This should not cause any discomfort.
External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT)
External beam radiotherapy is a treatment that uses electricity to create the radiotherapy beams which help to destroy cancer cells. These are called photons and electrons. The beams are delivered using a machine called a linear accelerator or linac. The linacs are operated by our therapy radiographers.
A CT scan is carried out before treatment begins so that the radiotherapy can be planned accurately, and minimise damage to healthy tissue.
It is important that the radiotherapy field covers the whole cancer, plus a border around it. This helps the radiotherapy to work as well as possible in treating the cancer. Doctors try to give as low a dose as possible to the surrounding healthy tissue to reduce the risk of side effects.
Some people may require extra preparation to aid the accuracy of your treatment. If required, your team will advise you of this.
Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT)
IGRT uses imaging scans and X-rays to make sure the radiotherapy treatment is as accurate as possible.
Imaging panels on the linac are able to take pictures before or during your treatment. These images are to ensure that you are positioned correctly and that the treatment is accurate. This helps reduce the dose of radiation given to the healthy tissue around the tumour, and reduces side effects.
Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT)
IMRT can shape the radiotherapy very closely around the tumour. The radiotherapy machine aims the beams at the tumour from many different directions. This gives very precise doses to the cancer or to specific areas within the tumour.
IMRT uses small beams to help lower the dose of radiation to normal healthy cells nearby. It can also vary the strength of the beams across the tumour.
Stereotactic Radiotherapy (SABR)
SABR gives radiotherapy from many different angles around the body. The beams meet at the tumour. This means the tumour receives a high dose of radiation and the tissues around it receive a much lower dose. This lowers the risk of side effects.
Patient usually have between 3 and 8 treatments.
This type of radiotherapy is mainly used to treat very small cancers, including:
- primary cancer in the lung
- primary cancer in the liver
- cancer that has spread to another part of the body such as lung, liver, adrenal, lymph nodes, bone or spine.
SABR is not suitable for everyone. Whether it is suitable depends on:
- where in the body the cancer is
- the size of the cancer.
Brachytherapy
Internal radiotherapy implants are radioactive metal wires, seeds, or tubes put into your body, inside or close to a tumour. The radioactive metal is called a source and is left inside the body for a period of time. For many cancer patients the source is taken out after a few minutes. However, for some small metal implants, or seeds, are left in the body permanently. These implants are made of radioactive gold or contain radioactive iodine. They give a very high dose of radiation to the area of the cancer cells. For most types of implants the radioactivity only travels a few millimetres through body tissue and so it can’t be detected outside the body.
For more information visit our dedicated brachytherapy pages.