VISIT WEBSITE >>>>> http://gg.gg/y83ws?210028 <<<<<<
Discuss your risks and benefits of RAI therapy with your doctor. Radioactive iodine therapy cannot be used to treat anaplastic undifferentiated and medullary thyroid carcinomas because these types of cancer do not take up iodine.
For RAI therapy to be most effective, you must have a high level of thyroid-stimulating hormone TSH or thyrotropin in the blood. This hormone is what makes thyroid tissue and cancer cells take up radioactive iodine. Most doctors also recommend that you follow a low iodine diet for 1 or 2 weeks before treatment. This means avoiding foods that contain iodized salt and red dye 3, as well as dairy products, eggs, seafood, and soy. Your body will give off radiation for some time after you get RAI therapy.
Depending on the dose of radioiodine used and where you are being treated, you might need to be in the hospital for a few days after treatment, staying in a special isolation room to prevent others from being exposed to radiation.
Some people may not need to be hospitalized. While it's important to remember each cancer and each person is different, radiation is often the treatment of choice for the following purposes. Some cancers are very sensitive to radiation. Radiation may be used by itself in these cases to make the cancer shrink or completely go away. In some cases, chemotherapy or other anti-cancer drugs may be given first.
For other cancers, radiation may be used before surgery to shrink the tumor this is called pre-operative therapy or neoadjuvant therapy , or after surgery to help keep the cancer from coming back called adjuvant therapy. For certain cancers that can be cured either by radiation or by surgery, radiation may be the preferred treatment.
This is because radiation can cause less damage and the part of the body involved may be more likely to work the way it should after treatment. For some types of cancer, radiation and chemotherapy or other types of anti-cancer drugs might be used together. Certain drugs called radiosensitizers help radiation work better by making cancer cells more sensitive to radiation.
Research has shown that when anti-cancer drugs and radiation are given together for certain types of cancer, they can help each other work even better than if they were given alone.
One drawback, though, is that side effects are often worse when they are given together. Cancer can spread from where it started to other body parts. In some cases, the area where the cancer most often spreads to may be treated with radiation to kill any cancer cells before they grow into tumors. For instance, people with certain kinds of lung cancer may get radiation to the head, even when there is no cancer known to be there, because their type of lung cancer often spreads to the brain.
This is done to help prevent cancer from spreading to the head even before it can. Sometimes, radiation to prevent future cancer can be given at the same time that radiation is given to treat existing cancer, especially if the area the cancer might spread to is close to the tumor itself.
Sometimes cancer has spread too much to be cured. But some of these tumors can still be treated to make them smaller so that the person can feel better. Radiation might help relieve problems like pain, trouble swallowing or breathing, or bowel blockages that can be caused by advanced cancer. This is called palliative radiation. If a person's cancer has returned recurred , radiation might be used to treat the cancer or to treat symptoms caused by advanced cancer.
For example, in rare circumstances a new cancer second primary cancer that's different from the first one treated with radiation may develop years later. Ask your doctor about potential side effects, both short and long term, that may occur after your treatment.
Before you undergo external beam radiation therapy, your health care team guides you through a planning process to ensure that radiation reaches the precise spot in your body where it's needed. Planning typically includes:.
After the planning process, your radiation therapy team decides what type of radiation and what dose you'll receive based on your type and stage of cancer, your general health, and the goals for your treatment.
The precise dose and focus of radiation beams used in your treatment is carefully planned to maximize the radiation to your cancer cells and minimize the harm to surrounding healthy tissue. During external beam radiation therapy, you're positioned on a table and a large machine moves around you sending beams of radiation into precise points in your body.
External beam radiation therapy is usually conducted using a linear accelerator — a machine that directs high-energy beams of radiation into your body. As you lie on a table, the linear accelerator moves around you to deliver radiation from several angles. The linear accelerator can be adjusted for your particular situation so that it delivers the precise dose of radiation your doctor has ordered. You typically receive external beam radiation on an outpatient basis five days a week over a certain period of time.
In most instances, treatments are usually spread out over several weeks to allow your healthy cells to recover in between radiation therapy sessions. Expect each treatment session to last approximately 10 to 30 minutes.
In some cases, a single treatment may be used to help relieve pain or other symptoms associated with more-advanced cancers. During a treatment session, you'll lie down in the position determined during your radiation simulation session. You might be positioned with molds to hold you in place. The linear accelerator machine may rotate around your body to reach the target from different directions. The machine makes a buzzing sound. You'll lie still and breathe normally during the treatment, which takes only a few minutes.
For some patients with lung or breast cancer, you might be asked to hold your breath while the machine delivers the treatment. Your radiation therapy team stays nearby in a room with video and audio connections so that you can talk to each other. You should speak up if you feel uncomfortable, but you shouldn't feel any pain during your radiation therapy session.
If you're receiving radiation to a tumor, your doctor may have you undergo periodic scans after your treatment to see how your cancer has responded to radiation therapy.
Comments