Avoi IMRT Abstract

Technetium-99’s radioactive properties can be used to identify lymph nodes in patients with breast cancer. Through an immunoscintigraphy procedure in an immune system protein is capable of binding to cancer cells. After injection, medical equipment is used to detect gamma rays emitted by the Technetium-99m. Tumor is detected where the concentration is high. This technique is very helpful when finding cancer cell are hard to detect (Uses of

3-D conformal radiation therapy allows the beams of radiation used in treatment to be shaped to match the tumor. Conformal radiation therapy uses information to focus exactly on the tumor. This will help with avoiding the healthy surrounding tissue. It is a very advanced method for radiation therapy but is highly suitable for cancer patients.

According to The American Cancer Society, 43.92% of males and 38% of females have the risk of developing cancer during his/her lifetime (“Lifetime Risk,” 2013). External beam therapy is a common cancer treatment that is distributed from a machine and is focused on the cancer inside the patient (External Beam Therapy, 2014). The treatment is a lot like getting an x-ray only the treatment is more time-consuming and uses a high dosage of radiation which is measured in units called Gray (Gy) (“External Beam Therapy” n.d.). Some of the machines for external beam therapy include linear accelerators, cobalt machines, and orthovoltage X-ray machines (Hopkins, n.d.). The type of machine used on each patient will be decided by the radiation oncologist (Hopkins, n.d.). The machine will not touch the patient and as you read further you will learn it does not hurt, and the radiation cannot be seen, felt, or smelled (“Lifetime Risk”, 2013). External Beam Therapy is an effective and safe treatment plan used to treat cancer.

Radiation Oncology also known as Radiation Therapy is a necessary evil for many of the millions of patients diagnosed with cancer every year. Seminars in Radiation Oncology states that “Radiotherapy is a critical and integral part of cancer care for over 50% of patients with cancer...” (Ahmed, Narendra, Prasanna, Coleman, & Krishnan, 2016) Electron Beam Radiation therapy widely used; as hopeful Radiologic Technologists, we should have an idea of what this is, who receives this treatment, how it works, short and long term side effects, and some advantages and disadvantages of treatment.

Radiation therapy employs high-energy beams to exterminate cancer cells. During radiation therapy, the patient lies flat on a table, and a bulky machine pilots the energy beam around the patient. The radiation will be aimed at the affected lymph nodes and the nearby area of nodes. Also, Radiation therapy includes side effects: fatigue, redness/burning of the skin, heart disease, stroke, thyroid problems, and other forms of

A very common problem is when people are working in the field of radioactive milling, enrichment, reprocessing, waste storage, meltdown, etc. are known to suffer from the radiation from nuclear material. Sometimes patients are required to follow special preparation beforehand to achieve accurate results, for example certain medication may need to be stopped or a certain diet must be followed. A major drawback of radiation therapy is the collateral damage it causes to surrounding tissues in organs, although improvements, have made targeting more precise, it is impossible to administer ionising radiation to cancerous tissue without harming healthy

Increasing in accumulative radiation doses may lead to initiate or promote carcinogenesis that can cause damages to the patient. Therefore, there is compulsory to reduction of radiation dose by finding the alternative and to upgrading accuracy in imaging strategies (Martin & Semelka, 2007).

Today, radiotherapy can be used to shrink or cure early stage cancers, to prevent cancer from recurring, and to treat the symptoms caused by late stage cancer. There are various different types of radiation therapy available today, each with different advantages and disadvantages. It is important to be familiar with the different techniques in order to provide the most effective treatment to cancer

Β-particles are high energy electrons which are ejected from the nucleus with a range of energies up to a maximal value.12 β-emitters are heavily researched and are a widely accessible form of radionuclide therapy. The LET of β-emitting particles is high enough to kill cancerous cells, but is considered low compared to α-emitters which have a lot more particles in the higher energy levels. Β-particle emitters deposit their energy over a much larger range (1mm, dependent on energies) compared to that of α-particles and Auger electrons.17 One benefit to this is that less work is needed on carrier molecules, as the distribution of the β- emitter is not as critical for the radionuclide therapy to be successful. β-emitters are the widest used and researched radionuclides as they offer a large range of energies, tissue penetration, half-lives and production methods.18 This means, depending on the type and size of the tumour, the radionuclide can be varied. For example for a large tumour, a β-emitter would be more effective than an α-emitter, as although it has a lower LET, the whole tumour can be targeted rather than a small area. Nuclear reactors are the most common mode of producing β-emitting radionuclides, however charged particle accelerators can also be used. The wide range of radionuclides has in itself become a problem as it often becomes hard to select the most appropriate. Some of the primary β-emitting radionuclides that are

Radiation therapy is when radiation is directed at rapidly growing cancer cells, damaging DNA and chromosomes to kill cells (Rhine 17). It can be done with external beam radiation therapy, or by radioembolization. External beam radiation therapy is used to shrink liver tumors, but is used less frequently than tumor ablation and embolization. The treatment for radiation therapy lasts for only a few minutes, however, they are given for several weeks. Stereotactic body radiation therapy, or SBRT, uses a very focus beam of high dosage radiation over one or a couple of days, allowing for the radiation treatment to last a shorter amount of time instead of several weeks. The concentration of the radiation can not be too high, because liver cells that are not cancerous are highly susceptible to damage, and the radiation can not just target cancer cells. Radioembolization, on the other hand, is when radioactive beads are put into the hepatic artery near tumors, and emit radiation; this method is more common than SBRT. Radiation therapy’s side effects include nausea, fatigue, and skin changes (“Liver Cancer Survival Rates [...]¨).

Dosimetry systems developed in standards laboratories utilize calorimetry, ionization and chemical methods for determining absorbed dose to water. One chemical method, the gel dosimeter, in which substances carrying dosimetric information are suspended in a gel matrix, allows dose distributions to be measured in three dimensions (3D), promising true 3D quality assurance measurements in radiotherapy treatment planning. Gel dosimetry has many advantages compared to conventional dosimetry techniques such as ion chambers, TLDs and films. This dosimeter not only records the radiation dose distribution in 3D with good spatial resolution, but also has the ability to integrate radiation doses from multiple directions. These advantages are particularly significant in dosimetry situations where steep dose gradients exist, such as in intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery. This 3D dosimeter is radiologically soft-tissue equivalent with properties that may be modified depending on the application. The readout techniques that have been developed include magnetic

The role of computed tomography (CT) in imaging has risen substantially in the previous decade (Hess et al. 2014). With its increasing demand, one of the most predominant concerns for radiation workers is the dose administered to the patient (Hess et al. 2014). Therefore, the calculation of dose is a parameter that must be monitored closely.

Nuclear Medicine is a specialty used to diagnose and treat diseases in a painless and safe manner, which uses a pharmaceutical (medicine) that’s attached to a small amount of radioactive material (a radioisotope). The procedures can often identify disease in an early stage, thus allowing for treatment to be started sooner. The most common of nuclear enhanced medical procedures involve the use of x-rays — a type of radiation that can pass through our skin. X-rays and other forms of radiation also have a variety

Ionizing radiation is measured in various units. The oldest unit, the roentgen (R), denotes the amount of radiation that is required to produce 1 electrostatic unit of charge in 1 cubic centimetre of air under standard conditions of pressure, temperature, and humidity. For expressing the dose of radiation absorbed in living tissue, the principal units are the gray (Gy; 1 Gy = 1 joule of radiation energy

Radiation therapy is the use of high energy x-rays or other particles to destroy cancer cells. The radiation may be delivered by a machine outside the body called external-beam radiation therapy, or it may come from radioactive material that is placed in the body near the cancer cells, that is called internal radiation therapy, or brachytherapy.