Radiation Oncology
Over 50% of all cancer patients will visit a radiation oncology specialist for radiation therapy at some point during their treatment. High-energy radiation beams act against cells that reproduce rapidly, which is why they’re good at targeting cancer cells. Sometimes normal cells are also injured in the process, but given time, they will heal, whereas the sped-up cancer cells will simply self-destruct. Radiation treatments are normally administered in small doses, five days a week, over a six or seven week period.
Radiation oncology works by damaging the cells’ genetic material that controls replication. The goal of this therapy is to injure as few healthy cells as possible. At least half of all cancer patients receive some form of radiation therapy. Sometimes it’s used as the primary means of eradicating cancer. In what is called “neoadjuvant therapy,” a cancerous tumor is shrunk to make surgery more successful. In “adjuvant therapy,” remaining cancer cells are targeted after a large growth has been removed during surgery. Often this treatment is used with chemotherapy to destroy additional cancer cells and minimize side effects, or in terminal patients, to provide some asymptomatic relief.
The success of radiation oncology depends upon the size of the tumor and the type of cancer. For example, there are highly radiosensitive cancer cells — like leukemia, lymphomas and germ cell tumors. So if lymphoma is found in one localized area, there is a good probability the cancer can be eradicated. On the other hand, some tumors are radio-resistant, such as renal cell cancer, melanoma and metastatic cancers that have spread throughout the whole body. While radiotherapy may be prescribed along with another treatment, the medical problem cannot be helped by radiation alone.
After treatment — whether it’s surgery, radiation therapy or chemotherapy — a radiation oncology specialist will usually run an MRI scan, a CT scan or a PET scan to see if the tumor has shrunk, remained the same or grown. The downside of radiation treatment is that the tests and procedures are very expensive. Currently Medicare and Medicaid are considering cutting their expenditures for oncology and radiology services, which will affect quality of care for many Americans. Other cancer treatment options may include surgery, laparoscopic removal and chemotherapy.
Thomas Bronson owns a multitude of different successful websites and attribute the success of those to the traffic secret which is responsible for generating massive amount of traffic to his websites. He is also the creator of a free course that guides you on a step-by-step process of starting an how to start a home business from scratch.
Comments
Leave a Reply