The Role of the Radiation Therapist Flashcards
What is RadioTherapy? What is its aim?
Treatment of cancer with ionising Radiation
1) kill tumour cells before they spread
2) reduce sizes of tumours to help symptoms
What are the ways we can treat cancer?
surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy
What does EMR stand for?
electromagnetic radiation
What is immunotherapy?
We can place monoclonal antibodies into the patient. Essentially antibodies are grown and harvested from another organism (such as a mouse) these are then placed into the human to fight the cancer
What three factors can exacerbate cancer growth?
Smoking, alcohol, radiation, genes,
Why do we surgically remove tumours?
surgical removal before they compress other structures
How can cancer spread?
Tumours spread via lympatic and blood drainage systems
Once cancer has spread via blood drainage and/or lymphatic systems, what type of treatment does the patient need?
Systematic (chemotherapy)
What are other forms of radiation besides IR?
Atmospherical radiation, phones EMR
If a drug ends in MAB?
These are all monoclonal antibodies
What is Palliative radiotherapy?
Aims to improve the quality of life by relieving symptoms without causing unacceptable side effects
delivering lower doses in smaller fractions (can be high dose with lung)
What type of patients is palliative radiotherapy good for?
Patients with metastic disease
What are examples of palliative prescriptions?
30 gray in 10 fractions, 25 gray in 5 fractions, 35 gray in 12 fractions
What is the reason for palliative prescriptions?
We want to reduce the amount of time spent at the clinic and reduce their pain, (really good with bone cancer)
How does radiotherapy work?
Ionisation damages DNA or ionises water into more damaging chemical (free radical) which damages DNA