Radiation Therapy

A powerful weapon against many cancer types

By 21st Century Oncology

Radiation therapy is one of the most common cancer treatments. It uses special equipment to deliver high doses of radiation to cancer cells. This damages the cancer cells and causes them to die.

Advanced cancer treatment requires advanced technology.

At 21st Century Oncology, our network of radiation therapy centers offers the most sophisticated radiation therapy treatment planning and delivery systems in the world. Not only do these technologies offer pinpoint accuracy, they do so faster and with minimum discomfort and interruption to patients’ lives.

Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy
Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is an advanced mode of high-precision radiotherapy that uses computer-controlled linear accelerators to deliver precise radiation doses to a malignant tumor or specific areas within the tumor. IMRT allows for the radiation dose to conform more precisely to the three-dimensional (3-D) shape of the tumor by modulating—or controlling—the intensity of the radiation beam in multiple small volumes. IMRT also allows higher radiation doses to be focused to regions within the tumor while minimizing the dose to surrounding normal critical structures. Treatment is carefully planned by using 3-D computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance (MRI) images of the patient in conjunction with computerized dose calculations to determine the dose intensity pattern that will best conform to the tumor shape. Typically, combinations of multiple intensity-modulated fields coming from different beam directions produce a custom tailored radiation dose that maximizes tumor dose while also minimizing the dose to adjacent normal tissues.

Because the ratio of normal tissue dose to tumor dose is reduced to a minimum with the IMRT approach, higher and more effective radiation doses can safely be delivered to tumors with fewer side effects compared with conventional radiotherapy techniques. IMRT also has the potential to reduce treatment toxicity, even when doses are not increased. Due to its complexity, IMRT does require slightly longer daily treatment times and additional planning and safety checks before the patient can start the treatment than conventional radiotherapy.

Radiation therapy, including IMRT, stops cancer cells from dividing and growing, thus slowing or stopping tumor growth. In many cases, radiation therapy is capable of killing all of the cancer cells, thus shrinking or eliminating tumors.

The right team, the right technology.
While you may have the same type of cancer as another patient, your particular situation — including your overall health, your medical history, even your work and family responsibilities — make your case unique. That is why it is vital to develop an individualized cancer treatment plan for every patient; taking not only their disease but also their overall well-being into account.

21st Century Oncology offers the latest, most sophisticated radiation therapy planning and delivery systems. This ensures that you and your Radiation Oncologist can choose the best treatment option given your type of cancer, its stage and location. Why is this so important? The more precisely we can target your tumor site, the lower the risk of side effects and the chance of a recurrence.

Dr. Arie Dosoretz returns to Florida and joins the 21st Century Oncology team.

With a passion for treating cancer patients using the latest technology, Dr. Dosoretz has a special interest in treating breast, prostate, and lung cancers. He has published articles and presentations on a range of topics including prostate cancer, head and neck cancers and Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology. He attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and completed his specialty training in radiation oncology at Yale University. Dr. Dosoretz helped establish a partnership between the Yale Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research Center (COPPER) and 21st Century Oncology and he continues to actively conduct outcomes research in oncology. He has returned to his hometown of Fort Myers, FL and joined 21st Century Oncology’s regional network in Lee County.

21st Century Oncology
www.21stCenturyOncology.com