Radiation Therapy - Main-Method
Methode
Radiation Therapy or Radiooncology plays an important role in the treatment of malignant diseases. Nowadays, about 45 to 50% of all people who suffer from cancer (children and adults) can be cured with the help of modern treatment procedures. 50 to 60% of those who have been cured have undergone radiotherapy as part of their treatment.
It is carried out either as radiotherapy alone or in combination with surgical measures and/or chemotherapy. Most patients and many physicians often do not understand well enough that radiation therapy makes a significant contribution to curing cancer or is even the decisive part of treatment.
Overmore Radiation Therapy plays an important role in alleviating the symptoms of cancer disease. Many patients who can no longer be cured benefit from pain relief or restoration of body functions (e.g. ability to swallow, ability to walk). For these patients, their disease should be considered as chronic, which requires therapy measures at various intervals.
In our joint practice for radiology and radiooncology, the Radiologische Allianz offers highly modern diagnostics and Radiation Therapy for diseases of the locomotor system, of the bones, of the lungs, area of the head and neck, of the brain, abdominal and pelvic organs. Our area of specialization is diagnostics and treatment of tumour diseases.
Thanks to our various diagnostic possibilities, we can perform an individually planned treatment of tumour diseases. Cooperating closely with colleagues from various fields, we can offer you the best possible diagnostics and radiooncological therapy. It is important for us to treat you with the best possible professional competence. You should feel at ease to ask questions, to express your wishes and concerns. Our practice team is always available to help you.
The goal of the treatment is to remove the tumour completely. To achieve this we need a certain radiation dose, which varies according to the type of tumour, tumour size, surrounding normal, healthy tissue and the individual disease situation. As a rule, that means that the treatment lasts for a long period of time. In a few individual cases, a single irradiation session can be enough. The radiation therapy is a local therapy measure similar to a surgical intervention. Its effect and side effects are limited to the body regions that have been irradiated.
In order to carry out the radiotherapy as gently as possible, it is in the most cases administered gradually, which means small portions of the entire dose are irradiated every day. This way, the destruction of the tumour cells and a better protection of surrounding normal and healthy tissue can be achieved. The size of the single dose and the entire dose and the size of the irradiation field depend on the type and extent of the tumour disease. Thanks to the modern imaging systems (CT, MR, PET/CT), the irradiation planning and highly developed linear accelerators, the treatment can be carried out with high precision, very effectively and gently. High-energy x-rays (photons) and electrons that are generated by means of a linear accelerator, are applied. With the help of physical methods, the dose distribution in the body can be calculated individually and precisely for each patient. The patient will not undergo radiation exposure.
Alleviating pain using Radiation Therapy in the case of benign diseases
The therapy with x-ray is applied not only for the treatment of malignant tumours - it also plays an important role in pain therapy.
A low-dose Radiation Therapy is a very effective method for treating painful, degenerative-inflammatory diseases of the skeleton. Therefore it is a good alternative or supplementation to other conservative treatments.
IORT, IMRT, VMAT/RapidArc, Brachytherapy, Stereotactic Radiotherapy
We also carry out special radiation therapy procedures:
- Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT)
- Stereotactic Radiotherapy
- Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and Volume-modulated arc therapy (VMAT/RapidArc)
- Brachytherapy