Nuclear Radiation For Cancer Treatment

Other names for radiation treatment are radiation therapy radiotherapy irradiation and x ray therapy.

Medicina nuclear guanabara nova iguacu. Cancer therapy can be much more effective using a new way to customize nuclear medicine treatment researchers say in the december 2014 issue of the journal of nuclear medicine. Before any type of nuclear medicine procedure is used it must be justified to ensure the benefits of the procedures outweigh risks to the patient. About half of all cancer patients still receive it at some point during their treatment.

For example a nuclear medicine lung scan would expose a person to 2 millisieverts msv of radioactivity while cancer treatment would expose a tumor to 50000 msv. Radiation therapy was first used to treat cancer more than 100 years ago. A cancer diagnosis may mean radiation therapy.

Radiation therapy uses high energy particles or waves such as x rays gamma rays electron beams or protons to destroy or damage cancer cells. External beam radiation may shrink tumors to treat pain and other problems caused by the tumor such as trouble breathing or loss of bowel and bladder control. In hospitals or on tv youve probably seen patients undergoing radiation therapy for cancer and doctors ordering pet scans to diagnose patientsthese are part of the medical specialty called nuclear medicinenuclear medicine uses radioactive substances to image the body and treat disease.

Radiation is one of the most common treatments for cancer. When treatments are used to ease symptoms they are known as palliative treatments. The process could.

What is radiation therapy. Learn the types of therapy cancers each treats and side effects. It looks at both the physiology functioning and the anatomy of the body in establishing diagnosis.

It shrinks tumors and kills cancer cells. This additional dose may. When doctors use nuclear medicine to diagnose or monitor a disease like cancer they put things in your body called radionuclides or tracers that release low levels of radiation.

However exposure to too much radiation can quickly damage organs or tissues while exposure to any amount of radiation might lead to an increase in the risk of cancer years after the exposure occurs.