Microbiologists 2018

Radiation Oncology

A radiation oncologist is a specialist physician who uses ionizing radiation (such as megavoltage X-rays or radionuclides) in the treatment of cancer. Radiation oncology is one of the three primary specialties, the other two being surgical and medical oncology, involved in the treatment of cancer. Brachytherapy is an advanced cancer treatment. Radioactive seeds or sources are placed in or near the tumor itself, giving a high radiation dose to the tumor while reducing the radiation exposure in the surrounding healthy tissues. External beam therapy (EBT), also called external radiation therapy, is a method for delivering a beam or several beams of high-energy x-rays to a patient's tumor. Intraoperative radiation therapy, or IORT is the application of therapeutic levels of radiation to the tumor bed while the area is exposed during surgery. Systemic radiation therapy is a type of radiation therapy in which radioactive material travels through the bloodstream to reach cells all over the body. Systemic radiation is used to treat certain types of cancer, such as thyroid cancer, or to relieve pain when cancer has spread (metastasized) to the bone. Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) uses an antibody labeled with a radionuclide to deliver cytotoxic radiation to a target cell.[1] In cancer therapy, an antibody with specificity for a tumor-associated antigen is used to deliver a lethal dose of radiation to the tumor cells.