Throat Cancer Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer. Different types of radiation therapies are used to kill the cancer cells. Radiation therapy involves the use of x-rays to make the cancer cells inactive. Generally, radiation therapy is helpful in treating the small tumor of cancer. If the cancer tumor cannot be removed through surgery or cured, radiation is used to destroy the cancer cells.
Radiation therapy includes major two types of treatments- Intensity Modulated radiation Therapy (IMRT) and High Dose radiation (HRD).
Intensity Modulated radiation Therapy (IMRT)
IMRT is an advanced therapy that employs computer program to use proper radiation frequency during the treatment. This helps to damage less healthy cells while destroying the cancer cells. This makes the treatment different than the older radiation therapies. It also avoids damaging other parts of throat that are not affected by the cancer.
In old technique, optic nerves, brain stem, spinal cord, eyes and salivary glands used to get affected by the radiation. But, IMRT have brought some relief to oncologists' in using radiation therapy. The case becomes more critical when the cancer cells are spread into other parts of head and neck. It is also useful to treat the cancer located at the inoperable places in body. Sometimes the combination of surgery and radiation therapy is applied to remove the voice box from throat.
High Dose Radiation (HDR)
HDR is a brachytherapy, which is used to diminish the cancer cells located inside the throat and around the healthy parts of neck. This radiation treatment helps to avoid the surgery treatment in many cases. HDR is an internal radiation therapy in which radioactive pellets are placed near the cancer cells.
The radioactive substance is carried with the help of catheters. The advanced computerized technology is used to release these pellets into the proper place and for specific period. This radiation therapy helps to retreat the affected parts of body that have been gone through radiation, and it also recovers the cancer infected area in short period.
External Beam Radiation
The external radiation treatments use the high-energy x-ray machine to release radiation beams towards the cancer cells. This type of treatment may go for 1-2 months in which radiation is given for 5 days per week.
3D Conformal Radiation
The three-dimensional conformal radiation treatment use computer simulation to locate the exact position of and size of cancer tumor. This helps to limit the radiation on the cancer cells and avoid the damage to the other normal tissues in throat.
Tomo Therapy is also a type of radiation treatment. When a patient of throat cancer goes under the TomoTherapy, CT scan is also done at the same time. Radiation therapy is helpful to the patients that have small tumor or those who cannot go through the surgery due to the poor health.
