Radiation is a fast and effective way to destroy brain tumors while protecting healthy surrounding tissues. Malignant cells are more sensitive to radiation treatment than normal cells, so this treatment can dramatically shrink life-threatening tumors. At Southwest Washington Medical Center, our Regional Cancer Center offers the most advanced and pain-free radiation treatment options, including the only CyberKnife^® stereotactic radiosurgery system in the Vancouver/Portland metropolitan area. Using a robot-guided beam, CyberKnife can treat tumors and lesions anywhere in the body, particularly in difficult locations such as the brain, spine or neck.

How do you know how much radiation I should receive?
What happens when I receive radiation treatment?
How long does it take?
What happens after radiation treatment?
What types of radiation treatment are available?
What's in the future for radiation treatment?
How can I find out more about radiation treatment options?
About Dr. Hoffelt

How do you know how much radiation I should receive?
At Southwest, radiation treatment is a collaborative effort across many specialties: physicians, physicists, therapists, nurses, dosimetrists are all involved. Radiation therapy must be designed for each patient: deciding different treatment energies, directing the precise location and angle of the beam, discovering ways to modify the dosage.

We combine all these considerations to develop a treatment plan, and we run a simulation to test it. In addition, the physicist completes a complex, quality assurance (QA) assessment to ensure that the plan is exact and perfect.

What happens when I receive radiation treatment?
You'll probably be asked to wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes. Metal can affect the treatment, so don't wear clothes with zippers or snaps. Depending on the part of your body being treated, you may be asked to remove hairpins, jewelry, eyeglasses and hearing aids, and to take out removable dental work.

Typically you will be lying down for radiation treatment. Many patients bring their favorite music, and we may make adjustments to help your body relax while lying still.

How long does it take?
It takes about five to ten minutes to set up the patient and equipment, and then about 35 seconds for each field that receives the dose. Depending on the type of treatment, this may be a longer or shorter period of time.

Radiation also may be given internally, by implanting tiny radioactive substances, such as "seeds," wires or capsules, near the tumors inside the body. If you have this type of radiation, you may need to stay in the hospital for a while.

Radiation therapy can last anywhere from two to eight weeks. Every patient's case is different.

What happens after radiation treatment?
After the treatment is completed, you can go back to your daily routine. Some patients may experience some fatigue, but many simply go home or back to work. Your body is your best indicator for what it will allow you to do.

Radiation does not cause pain, but there may be side effects, such as itchy, red skin. In addition to helping you monitor your physical condition, your radiation oncology nurse will help you with tips for rest, nourishment, exercise, support, and any other concerns that arise.

What types of radiation treatments are available?
We have several treatment options at Southwest. Based on the exact location and shape of the tumors and target for the cancer, we may use:

• CyberKnife^® radiosurgery with precise robotic treatment, cameras and speaker system for image-guided, bloodless surgery
• Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT)
• Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
• Clinac 23X with dual-energy photon and electron beams
• Linear accelerators
• Diagnostic PET/CT
• Radiography-based simulation room and T scanners
• Radiofrequency ablation (RFA)
• Brachytherapy using CS 137
• Customized patient treatment device fabrication

What's in the future for radiation treatment?
Technology will continue to develop radiation treatment machines that treat patients more accurately, quickly, and with more aggressive dose delivery to cancer cells while sparing normal tissues.

The future of radiation therapy treatment uses a model based on diagnostic-quality, stereoscopic x-ray images that, on a daily basis, can target the site the moment before treatment begins. Any changes in a patient's anatomy can be accounted for in real time. Physicians can be even more confident that daily targeting will keep less normal tissue within the treatment area. Physicians currently using this technology can prescribe higher total tumor doses.

How can I find out more about radiation treatment options?
Southwest's Radiation Oncology Department is located in the stand-alone Cancer Center building on the Southwest Washington Medical Center campus, off the 87th Ave. entrance from Mill Plain Blvd. in Vancouver. For more information, go to www.swmedicalcenter.org/cancercenter or call 360.514.1900. If you would like to learn more or see a video of the CyberKnife in action, visit www.swmedicalcenter.org/cyberknife or call 360.514.CYBR (2927).

About Dr. Hoffelt
Southwest's CyberKnife^® team is led by radiation oncology expert, S. Christopher Hoffelt, M.D. In addition to his role in the Radiation Oncology department, part of Southwest's Cancer Center, Dr. Hoffelt is also on the faculty at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU). Before joining Southwest Washington Medical Center, Dr. Hoffelt was part of the team at Baltimore's Sinai Hospital that introduced the CyberKnife technology for tumor treatments.

You can locate a doctor to help you with cancer care (oncology) on our Find a Doctor area.