Radiotherapy Flashcards
Radiotherapy is what?
Treatment of disease by ionising therapy
Why is it used?
Ionising radiation can penetrate tissues and alter DNA! Makes Free Rads and Apoptosis!
Advantages?
Target cancer while healthy cells recover!
Alpha and Gamma are therapy of choice, why?
As they are better at producing ionization than beta or neutrons!
When is radiotherapy used?
Stand alone cancer treatment, palliative care, reduce tumour for surgery, control symptoms, reduce growth ie Graves!
What are the two types?
Internal and External, internal requires radioactive implants to be put inside the body
External
Motionless, painless, several days, marked target
Internal
Prostate cancer, target specific, metal blocks to detect beam, Gold or Iodine seeds, permanent, limit contact with people
Side effects
Anaemia, tiredness, nausea, sore skin, hair loss, joint pain, loss of libido
Hyper fractioned
Low dose, more frequent
Hypo fractioned
Higher dose, less frequent
Stereotactic Therapy
Used to treat small round tumours in the head
Used to treat a number of benign conditions: Pituitary adenomas, Acoustic neuromas, Growths at the base of the skull (meningiomas)
