Stereostatic Body Radiotherapy: New Way to Treat Cancer

Stereostatic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is an ultimately new and rapidly progressing way to treat tumors. The main peculiarity of the experience is reaching the tumor from various positions around the body. As a result, the beams meet the tumor and give a high dose of radiation. However, tissues around the center of the problem receive a low radiation dose, so can be safe. Generally, the treatment plan presupposes from 1 to 8 courses, depending on the location and severity of the condition. Most commonly, stereostatic body radiotherapy is used for the following cancer types:

• Lung cancer;
• Spinal cord tumor;
• Lymph nodes cancer;
• Liver cancer.

Planning and Getting the Treatment

The pre-therapy stage is ultimately important and involves numerous steps. First of all, you start the treatment course with a CT scan in the radiotherapy department. PET or MRI scans may also be required to learn the problem and understand the location and severity of cancer. The results of scans are saved in a special computer program that further creates radiation beams to repeat the form of the tumor as precisely as possible. The main concern of a medical specialist responsible for the radiotherapy is to make sure the tumor is inside the field of radiotherapy and eliminate the risk for healthy tissues around it. As a result, the procedure seems to be completely safe and cause no adverse reactions.

After the planning stage, you will have from 2 days up to 2 weeks, which are required for your radiotherapy doctor and physicist to create an individual treatment plan. The recovery process should be supervised by a medical specialist to prevent complications and unwanted reactions.