Radiation Therapy at The Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson
Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy X-rays to treat cancer. About half of all cancer patients will receive radiation therapy at some point in their treatment.
If you are concerned with how radiation may affect your health, Jefferson physicians have made great strides in reducing the effects of radiation on normal tissue surrounding the tumor being treated. As a result, in many cases, fatigue is the only significant side effect of radiation therapy and other side effects are limited to the area being treated.
Radiation oncologists at the Bodine Center for Radiation Therapy / Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have developed several new cancer treatments and have helped pioneer the use of advanced radiation therapies that precisely target cancerous tumors. Radiation therapies help a significant number of our patients realize cures, while successfully slowing the progress of cancers for many others. Our state-of-the-art image-based planning and treatment systems offer a more targeted delivery of therapies. Some of the advanced radiation therapies offered at Jefferson include:
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Brachytherapy – a procedure that involves implanting tiny radioactive seeds at the site of the tumor, which, compared with external radiation therapy, allow for a higher dose of radiation to be safely administered
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Intra-operative radiation therapy (IORT) – involves the delivery of a large dose of radiation directly to a tumor exposed through surgery
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Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) – delivers radiation doses that precisely fit the 3-D shape of a tumor. It also tightly regulates the intensity of the radiation to more closely target the tumors and spare surrounding tissue.
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Radioembolization – a breakthrough treatment that delivers radiation directly to tumors via microscopic glass bubbles filled with a radioactive material called yttrium-90. These tiny bubbles cut off blood supply to the tumor and destroy cancerous cells that cannot be treated by other means.
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Respiratory gating technology – allows physicians to synchronize the delivery of radiation with a patient's own breathing cycle. This allows for a high dose of radiation to be directly administered more safely.
Jefferson is also home to the region's busiest radiation oncology center, which is visited by more than 2,000 cancer patients a year. Specializing in specific types of tumors and therapies, our radiation oncologists are continually improving patient outcomes by providing carefully coordinated and sequenced therapies in concert with surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation biologists and medical physicists.