Internal Radiation Therapy

Cancer is a disease that affects thousands of Americans each year, with some of them dying in a short period of time. However, the death rate and survival rate vary based on the type of cancer, because some types are deadlier than others. For example, cervical cancer has a high survival rate because it can easily be detected through a pap smear, whereas pancreatic cancer can go on for years with no symptoms at all, until it’s already too late to do anything about it. Moreover, internal radiation therapy has been used to treat different types of cancer due to its effectiveness and accuracy.

Treating Tumors Directly

Internal radiation therapy is also known as brachytherapy in the medical and cancer world, and in contrast to the external beam, it basically makes use of an internal container. The way that internal radiation therapy works is by allowing a small container, bead, or pellet to be placed inside or extremely close to the tumor or cancerous mass. This means that the problem will be treated directly, and that’s why internal radiation therapy is considered to be highly effective, especially when compared with other types of treatment that address the entire body instead of the tumor itself. Moreover, when the tumor is treated directly with internal radiation therapy, the patient has fewer probabilities of facing extreme side effects, such as having damaged tissue or healthy cells.

Difference Between Internal and External

Even though the name describes it broadly, the main difference between internal radiation therapy and external radiotherapy is the location where the treatment is administered. This means that the external beam is administered on the outer side of the tissue or skin, but the radiation (invisible) still gets through until it reaches the cancerous mass. On the other hand, internal radiation therapy is administered by placing a small container next or inside the cancerous mass;this means that the container has the radiation source within, and it will administer it directly onto the affected area. The main advantage of using internal radiation therapy is the possibility of using a higher dose of radiation, because it won’t affect the outer tissue like the external beam radiotherapy does.

Choosing The Right Type of Internal Radiation Therapy

Certainly, you have read that there are different types of treatments available to counterattack the disastrous effect of cancer. Internal radiation therapy is surely one of the most common types of treatment, but there are also three other subtypes within this treatment, which are:

• Low-dose–as the name describes, this internal radiation sub-treatment implants a small recipient with low-doseinside the patient. Your oncologist will probably have you stay at the hospital during the treatment, which will take anywhere from one to seven days.
• High-dose–this second subtype of internal radiation therapy implants the same type of recipient but with a higher dose of radiation.The frequency for treatment will be scheduled by your oncologist and it will most likely depend on the type of cancer.
• Permanent–the implant is left within the body for an undefined period of time.