Cancer Care (Do Not Delete)

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy, or radiotherapy, uses radiation to treat diseases like cancer.

Radiation therapy can:

Reduce the size of a tumor before your surgeon removes it
Kill any remaining tumor cells following surgery
Shrink a tumor that is causing symptoms, like pain

Unlike chemotherapy, which affects your whole body, radiation therapy is a localized treatment — it only affects the area where the cancer is.

Although it’s an important component in treating many types of cancers, your doctor may also recommend radiation therapy to treat conditions of the head and brain, such as facial pain or non-cancerous brain lesions.

Types of radiation therapy

At Tanner Cancer Care, our radiation oncologists specialize in radiation therapies to treat cancer generally deliver radiation in one of two ways: internally or externally.

External radiation

This is probably the type of radiation therapy you’re most familiar with: using a machine to externally deliver high-powered X-rays to a specific area of your body.

Tanner offers many types of external radiation therapy. These highly sophisticated tools allow your doctor to target your disease precisely with radiation without harming nearby healthy tissue.

Internal radiation

Your doctor can also deliver radiation therapy by implanting radioactive seeds, wires or rods directly into or very close to your tumor. This is called brachytherapy.

If you have prostate cancer, for example, your radiation oncologist may implant radioactive seeds into your prostate to kill cancer cells from within. Depending on your disease, your doctor may recommend both internal and external radiation therapy for the best possible outcomes. Ask your doctor which type of radiation therapy is right for you.

Our radiation therapy technology

Effective radiation therapy targets diseased tissue and preserves healthy tissue with as much precision as possible. The latest advancements in radiation therapy technologies provide exceptional precision for effective treatment and greater comfort.

Some types of radiation therapy use state-of-the-art computers along with CT scans or other diagnostic imaging technology to digitally create 3-D images of your tumor. Your radiation oncologist can then shape and direct the radiation beams precisely to the particular size and contour of your tumor.

Other types of technology tell your doctor your tumor’s exact location in three-dimensional space. These advances mean you get radiation focused only where you need it — on your tumor — while minimizing harm to nearby healthy tissue. They also allow radiation oncologists to deliver radiation therapy more quickly.

Tanner Radiation Innovation for Breast Cancer Offers Heart Protection

A recent innovation – deep inspiration breath hold – introduced earlier this year at Tanner’s Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center, protects women from a potential side effect of their life-saving radiation treatments: heart damage. Watch this video to learn how the innovation works.

Specialized radiation therapy

For patients with certain types of cancers, Tanner offers additional specialized options for radiation therapy.

MammoSite RTS

This therapy delivers radiation from inside the space from which a breast cancer tumor was removed during a lumpectomy, reducing the likelihood the cancer will return.
Prostate Seed Implant
For some men, this therapy has cure rates comparable to surgical removal of the prostate with fewer side effects. It uses radioactive seeds inserted directly into the prostate to kill prostate cancer cells.

Many patients undergo radiation therapy as part of their overall treatment for cancer. Talk to your doctor about which type of radiation therapy makes sense for you, or learn more about cancer treatments at Tanner.