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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.
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 ]
Doctor reviewing a radiation treatment plan. In radiotherapy, radiation treatment planning (RTP) is the process in which a team consisting of radiation oncologists, radiation therapist, medical physicists and medical dosimetrists plan the appropriate external beam radiotherapy or internal brachytherapy treatment technique for a patient with cancer.
For example, the cost of the entire unit used to perform the first cobalt-60 treatment was about $50,000. By way of contrast, it would cost $50,000,000 just to produce enough radium (which had been previously used as a therapy source) to perform the same procedure.
Radiosurgery is surgery using radiation, [1] that is, the destruction of precisely selected areas of tissue using ionizing radiation rather than excision with a blade. Like other forms of radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy), it is usually used to treat cancer.
Radiation therapy treatments to the head and neck regions for soft tissue, palate or bone cancer can cause chronic sinus tract draining and fistulae from the bone. [5] Lymphedema Lymphedema, a condition of localized fluid retention and tissue swelling, can result from damage to the lymphatic system sustained during radiation therapy.
Intraoperative electron radiation therapy is the application of electron radiation directly to the residual tumor or tumor bed during cancer surgery. [1] [2] Electron beams are useful for intraoperative radiation treatment because, depending on the electron energy, the dose falls off rapidly behind the target site, therefore sparing underlying healthy tissue.
This is a type of targeted therapy which uses the physical, chemical and biological properties of the radiopharmaceutical to target areas of the body for radiation treatment. [3] The related diagnostic modality of nuclear medicine employs the same principles but uses different types or quantities of radiopharmaceuticals in order to image or ...