But 3D-CRT can limit the damage to the salivary glands that causes dry mouth. Intensity modulated radiation therapy IMRT. This is a more complex form of radiation. Proton beam therapy. This treatment uses protons rather than x-rays.
A proton is a positively charged particle. At high energy, protons can destroy cancer cells. The protons go to the targeted tumor and deposit the specific dose of radiation therapy. Unlike with x-ray beams, there is very little radiation dose beyond the tumor. This limits damage to nearby healthy tissue.
Currently, doctors use proton therapy to treat certain types of cancer. This therapy is relatively new and requires special equipment. Therefore, it is not available at every medical center. Learn more about proton therapy.
Image-guided radiation therapy IGRT. This refers to the practice of using daily images of each treatment field to confirm patient positioning and make sure the target is in the field.
These daily images are compared to the images used to plan treatment. IGRT allows your doctor to make each treatment field smaller. This allows better targeting of the tumor and helps reduce damage to healthy tissue. Stereotactic radiation therapy SRT.
This treatment delivers a large, precise radiation therapy dose to a small tumor area. The patient must remain very still. Head frames or individual body molds help limit movement. SRT is often given as a single treatment or in fewer than 10 treatments.
Some patients may need more than one course of SRT. Internal radiation therapy is also called brachytherapy. This type of radiation therapy is when radioactive material is placed into the cancer or surrounding tissue.
Implants may be permanent or temporary and may require a hospital stay. Permanent implants. These are tiny steel seeds that contain radioactive material. The capsules are about the size of a grain of rice. They deliver most of the radiation therapy around the implant area. This requires safety measures to protect others from radiation exposure. Over time, the implants lose radioactivity. And the inactive seeds remain in the body.
Temporary internal radiation therapy. This is when radiation therapy is given in one of these ways:. The radiation stays in the body for anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. Most people receive radiation therapy for just a few minutes.
Sometimes, people receive internal radiation therapy for more time. If so, they stay in a private room to limit other people's exposure to the radiation. Intraoperative radiation therapy IORT. This treatment delivers radiation therapy to the tumor during surgery using either external-beam or internal radiation therapy. IORT allows surgeons to move away healthy tissue in advance. Whilst many believe that all it takes is a single exposure to radiation for cancer to develop, this is not true.
Because we are constantly surrounded by radiation, our bodies have developed sophisticated protection mechanisms against its effects. The health impacts of radiation is well understood and studied. The relationship between radiation exposure and cancer has been researched extensively for more than years and it has been proven that radiation is only a weak carcinogen — in other words, it takes a very large amount of radiation to increase the risk of cancer only slightly.
Exposure to radiation is the principal public concern in the event of a nuclear accident. The worst nuclear accident in history, which took place at Chernobyl, caused the death of 28 nuclear plant and emergency workers who were exposed to lethal amounts of radiation.
Many of them received doses above 10 Sievert 10, mSv within minutes or hours. Since the accident in , Chernobyl also resulted in about thyroid cases — which would have been prevented if the authorities had stopped contaminated foodstuffs from entering the food chain.
These cases have, to date, resulted in 15 deaths. In comparison, air pollution from the use of coal kills about 80 people - every hour - in China alone. Neither of the accidents at Three Mile Island nor Fukushima Daiichi — the only other civil nuclear power plants that have suffered accidents resulting in a noteworthy release of radioactive material into the environment — resulted in any radiation-induced health effects. Every year, nuclear medicine helps doctors diagnose and treat tens of millions of people.
Radiation can also be used as a non-invasive alternative to brain surgery. Radiation can also cure cancer and other life-threatening conditions. However, when the radiation dose exceeds certain levels. Then it could pose a health risk. In Australia the unit of measurement normally used to express radiation dose is the Sievert. If you are designated a radiation worker than you can receive up to twenty times this. Mention radiation and most people immediately think of nuclear power plants, or nuclear accidents.
But there are many natural sources of radiation that we are all exposed to every day. Ambient levels of background radiation in Australia will vary between 0. These levels are typically found at ground level and away from any significant radiation source. Keep in mind that many minerals may have small levels of radiation in them, so things such as granite and concrete may contribute to the higher 0.
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