Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Cobalt therapy is the medical use of gamma rays from the radioisotope cobalt-60 to treat conditions such as cancer. Beginning in the 1950s, cobalt-60 was widely used in external beam radiotherapy (teletherapy) machines, which produced a beam of gamma rays which was directed into the patient's body to kill tumor tissue.
Most side effects are predictable and expected. Side effects from radiation are usually limited to the area of the patient's body that is under treatment. Side effects are dose-dependent; for example, higher doses of head and neck radiation can be associated with cardiovascular complications, thyroid dysfunction, and pituitary axis dysfunction ...
External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) is a form of radiotherapy that utilizes a high-energy collimated beam of ionizing radiation, from a source outside the body, to target and kill cancer cells. The radiotherapy beam is composed of particles, which are focussed in a particular direction of travel using collimators [ 1 ] .
Radiation therapy is used to kill cancer cells; however, normal cells are also damaged in the process. Currently, therapeutic doses of radiation can be targeted to tumors with great accuracy using linear accelerators in radiation oncology; however, when irradiating using external beam radiotherapy, the beam will always need to travel through healthy tissue, and the normal liver tissue is very ...
Cancer treatments are a wide range of treatments available for the many different types of cancer, with each cancer type needing its own specific treatment. [1] Treatments can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy including small-molecule drugs or monoclonal antibodies, [2] and PARP inhibitors such as olaparib. [3]
Cutting through or removal of nerves is used in people with cancer pain who have short life expectancy and who are unsuitable for drug therapy due to ineffectiveness or intolerance. Because nerves often carry both sensory and motor fibers, motor impairment is a possible side effect of neurectomy.
Prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI) is a technique used to combat the occurrence of metastasis to the brain in highly aggressive cancers that commonly metastasize to brain, most notably small-cell lung cancer. [1] Radiation therapy is commonly used to treat known tumor occurrence in the brain, either with highly precise stereotactic ...
Abscopal effects of Targeted intraoperative radiotherapy have been seen in clinical studies, including in randomized trials where women treated with lumpectomy for breast cancer combined with whole breast radiotherapy showed reduced mortality from non-breast-cancer causes when compared with whole breast radiotherapy.