Like all medical specialties, the field of therapeutic radiology continues to make advances in knowledge and technology. Many newer radiation modalities are being used and studied to find more effective treatments for cancer and other conditions which may be treated with radiation.
What are some types of advanced therapies?Some of the more promising new therapeutic radiation therapies are described below:
- radiation and chemotherapy in combination
It has been discovered that radiation may, in some cases, improve the effects of chemotherapy, and that chemotherapy, in some cases, may improve the effects of radiation. Research continues in this area to establish treatment protocols which may provide the greatest efficacy of chemotherapy and radiation.
- stereotactic irradiation
The use of stereotactic irradiation has added an important new treatment modality to the area of brain cancer treatment. Stereotactic irradiation is the use of a single high dose of radiation sent into the diseased tissue with very narrow beams of radiation. The two main forms of stereotactic irradiation are linear acceleration and the gamma knife. The precision, as well as the lower amount of invasiveness offered by stereotactical surgical procedures has been shown to lower the length of hospital stay and the associated costs for certain brain cancers and conditions.
- three-dimensional (3D) conformal radiation therapy (30 CRT)
Before the development of computed tomography (CT), exact targeting of a lesion or tumor for radiation therapy was difficult. However, a 3-dimensional visualization is necessary to define all borders of the lesion or tumor for the most precise treatment planning and implementation. Protocols and techniques for 3-dimensional conformal radiation therapy are being developed and refined to improve the application and outcomes of radiation therapy.
- radioimmunotherapy
Radioimmunotherapy is a type of radiation therapy that involves using antibodies "tagged" with a radiopharmaceutical substance. These tagged antibodies recognize tumor cells and bind with them, thus bringing the radiopharmaceutical directly to the tumor tissue. The tagged antibodies may be administered intravenously, directly into an artery, under the skin, or directly into a body cavity such as the uterus. One advantage of radioimmunotherapy is that it may be used to treat metastases (sites away from the original lesion or tumor to which cancer has spread) that are not visible by diagnostic means, thus helping to eliminate the spread of the disease.
- intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
Similar in concept to 3D conformal radiation therapy, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, uses varying intensity within individual radiation beams in order to achieve "organ sparing" treatment (minimizing the amount of radiation to normal tissues surrounding the area being treated).