Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia Snellville, Georgia - Snellville, GA

Computer Tomography (CT) Scanning & Simulation allows the cancer specialists to design a treatment plan specifically for the patient based on the size, location, and shape of the tumor. The patient will have three-dimensional images (CT Scans) taken. These are used with the treatment planning software that helps determine how to best deliver the radiation beams while reducing damage to surrounding areas. In some cases, it may be necessary to mark the patient’s skin with a tiny marker so that the patient is perfectly realigned in the correct position for every session of radiation therapy. The need for a temporary or permanent marker will be discussed with the patient before the simulation.

Eclipse™ is a comprehensive three-dimensional treatment planning system that creates complex arrangement of beam positions and intensities that are then programmed into the equipment that delivers external radiation therapy treatments including proton, electron, external beam, low-dose-rate brachytherapy, and cobalt therapy. Cancer specialists use this software, combined with a patient’s CT, MRI or PET images, to create either an external or internal radiation treatment plan. This allows them to choose the best possible dose delivery, maximizing the dose delivered to the tumor, and minimizing the dose delivered to the surrounding normal tissue.

High-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy delivers high-doses of radiation to the tumor area from within the body or on the surface of the skin. It is administered through an applicator tube or thin catheter that is inserted into the body or through an applicator that sits on top of the skin.

This process delivers radiation for several minutes to the specific area where the cancer is located, sparing surrounding tissue. The radiation is removed from the body, unlike low-dose brachytherapy which may stay implanted.

Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) combines three-dimensional images, such as CT scans, with the precise technology of either 3-D or intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to pinpoint and treat cancerous tumors. The images allow the cancer specialists to precisely localize the tumor each time radiation therapy is administered. This improves both accuracy of delivery and safety by reducing radiation exposure to other areas of the body including nearby tissue and organs. IGRT is used to treat tumors in areas of the body that are prone to movement, such as the lungs, liver, and prostate gland, as well as tumors located close to critical organs and tissues.

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is an advanced form of external radiation treatment that allows precise targeting of tumor cells. The CT simulator localization scan or other three-dimensional images provide the radiation oncologist with an understanding of the shape and location of the tumor. With 3D planning, the radiation oncologist specifies the dose from various beams and sums up those doses to calculate the dose to tumor and normal tissue (forward planning). With IMRT, the radiation oncologist specifies the dose desired to give the tumor and the doses acceptable to the normal tissues (as low as possible). Then the computer system provides millions of alternative beam positions and the varying intensities of each beam, comparing one plan to the next until the best plan is identified. This is called inverse planning. Since each beam is broken up into many sub-beams of varying intensity the process is called intensity-modulated radiation.

Stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), also known as stereotactic ablative body radiation (SABR), is an advanced type of radiation therapy that delivers high doses of radiation using several beams of varying intensity aimed at a very targeted area of the body. Due to the high intensity of the radiation dose, only one to five doses are given over a single day., Treatment can take up to a week and a half when the five treatments are given every other day. Three-dimensional images, such as CT or MRI scans, are used in the simulation process to direct the beams precisely while reducing radiation exposure to other areas of the body. Patients with small, well-defined tumors who cannot tolerate surgery are good candidates for SBRT.

Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a type of stereotactic radiation therapy that can be used in place of or in conjunction with surgery for single tumors that have spread to the brain. It is given in one session, although the treatment can be repeated if necessary. There are two possible SRS treatments. In one, a machine focuses approximately 200 beams of radiation on the tumor from different angles while the patient’s head is kept in the same position. In the other version, a computer-controlled linear accelerator moves around the patient’s head to deliver radiation to the tumor from different angles.

Volumetric arc therapy (VMAT) is an advanced form of IMRT that allows a targeted, three-dimensional dose of radiation to be delivered directly to a tumor. The machine that delivers radiation can deliver the dose to the entire tumor in a 360-degree rotation, up to eight times faster than IMRT alone.