Radiation Oncology

Radiation Oncology

Radiation therapy (also named as Radiotherapy) is a major component of cancer treatment. Radiation Oncology attributes to high doses of Ionizing radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.

How Radiation Therapy Works Against Cancer

At high doses, radiation therapy kills cancer cells or inhibit their growth by DAN damage. Cancer cells with damaged DNA beyond any repair stop multiplying or die. When the damaged cells die, they are removed from the body.

Radiation therapy does not kill all cancer cells instantly. It takes days or weeks of treatment before enough DNA damage occurs to kill the cancer cells. Then, cancer cell death continues for weeks or months after radiation therapy ends.

 

Types of Radiation Therapy

There are two main types of radiation therapy, external beam, and internal.

The type of radiation therapy that you may have depends on many factors, including:

• • The type of cancer
  • The sizeand extent or spreadthe tumor (Staging)
  • The tumor’s location in the body (site)
  • The radiation sensitivity of the Normal tissues in the vicinity of the tumor.
  • General health condition and medical history
  • Whether you will have other types of cancer treatment
  • Other factors, such as your age and other medical conditions and co-morbidities

 

External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT)

External beam radiation therapy comes from a machine that aims radiation at cancer from outside the body. The machine doesn’t come into contact with your body, but can move around you, sending radiation to a part of the body from different directions.

External beam radiation therapy is a localized treatment, which means it treats a specific part of the human body. For example, if someone have cancer of Breast, she/he will have radiation only to the chest, not to the whole body.

 

Internal Radiation Therapy (Brachytherapy)

Internal radiation therapy is a treatment in which a radioactive source of radiation is Inserted into the body inside the body, either through a natural body cavity or by surgical procedure puncturing the tissue. Internal radiation therapy with a solid source is called brachytherapy. The radiation sources are tiny in size , of the dimension of a rice grain.

In brachytherapy treatment seeds, ribbons, or capsules that contain a radiation source are placed in your body, in or near the tumor. Like external beam radiation therapy, brachytherapy is also a form of local treatment and treats only a specific part of your body.

The most common application of Brachytherapy is seen in Gynaecological/Cervical, Breast, Oesophagus, and Nasopharyngeal cancers

 

Radiotherapy Department Apollo Cancer Hospital

ACH is a well-equipped radiotherapy centre started its journey in 2010 March, with two linear accelerators Novalis-Tx, Clinac-iX, integrated Cone Beam CT,HDR Brachytherapy, Brainlab Stereoscopic Imaging, multiple Treatment Planning Systems (Eclipse and iPlan), Countering Stations(Somavision) all internally connected to a single database of ARIA Record and Verification system. Novalis Tx was the latest technology in Radiation Therapy(RT) in 2010 introduced for the first time in Eastern India by AGCH.

Continuing to the commitment of Apollo to offerto the cancer patients best possible treatment and to keep ourselves upgrading with time to be at par with the world standards, we are proud to proudly introducing our state of art Halcyon-E linear accelerator. This new linear accelerator has been commissioned through the stringent quality test of the international standard in recent time is the addition to our existing facility of Novalis-Tx with Brain Lab stereoscopic imaging system and Brachytherapy Facility.

The Salient features of Halcyon-E

• High-Speed treatment delivery – (approximately 1.5 min)
  Help to reduce the patient movement during radiation and reduces the anxiety of the patients who feel claustrophobic
• Image Guided radiotherapy for every session of radiotherapy treatment
  Volumetric Cone beam CT ensure the accurate patient positioning hence accurate radiotherapy delivery to the tumour with maximum sparing of the normal tissue for every treatment session.
• Patient centric comfort Safety and standardize workflow
  Standardized workflow reduces the “In-room” time and noise-free smooth beam delivery enhances patient comfort during therapy.
• With a dedicated team of well-trained clinical super-specialists (Doctors) , Medical Physicist, Technician and Nurses – best assured treatment with comfort and care.

Halcyon E, in fact, upholds the tradition of Apollo being a pioneer in cancer treatment in eastern India. We werethe first to commission Novalis-Tx in this region. It was the first hi-tech radiation machine in the eastern part of India that could deliver stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT).

The introduction of a high-end machine like Halcyon exemplifies what we have shown through our endeavours time and again – that Apollo never sleeps – when it comes to bringing the best possible technology available globally to the service of patients in this part of the world.

The Novali’s Tx-Key features

• IGRT (Image-Guided Radiation Therapy) & IMRT (Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy) – make therapies most effective & safe.
• Stereotactic Radio Surgery (SRS) & Radiotherapy (SRT)- knifeless surgery for small brain tumors, metastatic, inoperable brain tumors , residual tumors, lung & liver tumors of small sizes & also certain benign tumors.
• Rapid Arc technology- makes treatment faster & comfortable.
• Cone- Beam CT Scan- leaves no rooms for errors.
• BrainLab ExacTrac X-Ray with 6D couch motion – Gives more precision

Advantages of Novali’s Tx-

• Accurate & Effective-
• Shapes cancer-fighting radiation beams around the tumors, ensuring maximum prescribed dose of high energy radiation to the tumor.
• Protects surrounding healthy tissues.
• Adopts treatments to breathing & other body movements so that radiation delivery is always safe, precise & accurate.
• Offers hope to those with conditions once considered untreatable & for whom surgery is not an option
• Fast
• Delivers treatment in 2-3 minutes with dynamic collimators & diverse gentry movements.
• Personalized care by offering one time treatment or a series of treatments.
• Delivers highest dose rates to treat tumours deep inside brain or the rest of the body.
• Non Invasive-
• Frameless radiosurgery & radio therapy offer a more comfortable & non invasive alternative to Frame based radiosurgery & radiotherapy systems that need immobilization with head ring that attaches to the skull.
• Beside Novali’s Tx, the department is equipped with CLINAC iX & High Dose rate Brachytherapy Facilities.