BAPTIST HOSPITAL EAST - THE RADIATION CENTER

Radiation therapy may be part of your treatment for cancer. Understanding what radiation therapy is, how it can help and what to expect not only will answer your questions, it will help ease your mind about what's going to happen in the coming weeks.

Radiation therapy uses high-energy X-rays or electrons to destroy or slow the growth of cancer cells. About half of all people with cancer are treated with radiation therapy. It is used for many types of cancer; including cancers of the head and neck, skin cancers, uterine and cervical cancers in women, Hodgkin's disease, leukemia, prostate cancer in men and lung cancer. For some cancer patients, radiation therapy is the only kind of treatment needed. Other patients receive radiation therapy along with chemotherapy or surgery.

Radiation therapy can help cure many different kinds of cancer and is used to relieve cancer symptoms such as pain, pressure or bleeding when a cure isn't possible. Many patients find the quality of their lives improves after palliative treatment with radiation therapy.

Baptist East was the first hospital in Metropolitan Louisville to offer a new kind of radiation therapy -- IMRT -- or intensity modulated radiation therapy. The aim of IMRT is to shape the treatment to the tumor, sparing more healthy tissue. IMRT can be used to treat several types of cancer, including prostate and breast.