Radiation Therapy

We’re Here For You

If you or a member of your family has been diagnosed with cancer, radiation therapy may be prescribed at some point to fight your illness.

Radiation therapy is a common method of killing cancers in the body and is given to more than half of all cancer patients — often with curative results.

The good news is that you don’t have to travel to a big city to get the most advanced radiation therapy available. We have a leading program right here at The Regional Cancer Center.

Our staff radiation oncologists are among the best in their field, and they’re backed by a whole team of professionals experienced in radiation medicine.

Working together, they use powerful, carefully calibrated equipment to deliver precision doses of radiation. In recent years, advances in imaging — CT Scanning and Magnetic Resonance Imaging — have improved our ability to pinpoint tumors. And a better understanding of radiation biology has resulted in achieving more exact doses and better methods of delivery.

At The Regional Cancer Center, we pride ourselves on being on the leading edge of that technology.

We Treat the Whole Person

While we have advanced expertise and technology, we also give equal attention to the emotional, spiritual and social aspects of your illness.

Because we see you as a whole person, a multidisciplinary approach will be used in planning and delivering your radiation treatments. To assure that things go smoothly, we will meet weekly on your behalf with other members of your multidisciplinary team. This team includes your other attending physicians, nurses, a social worker, a hospital chaplain, a dietitian, a physical therapist and other support personnel as they are needed.

We believe that by using a holistic approach, you get the best possible chance of winning against cancer.

How Radiation Therapy Works

The most common type of radiation therapy is the external beam, which is given in the form of X-rays from a machine. The Cancer Treatment Center has several types of these machines, including two powerful linear accelerators and a superficial X-ray machine, which is commonly used to treat skin cancers.

We also have a Microselectron-HDR, a machine that can deliver high doses of radiation very close to or inside tumors. These treatments are commonly used for gynecologic, lung and rectal cancers.

Two other treatment methods available are stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic radiotherapy, both of which are noninvasive. A one-time procedure, stereotactic radiosurgery administers precise, high doses of radiation to cranial abnormalities. Stereotactic radiotherapy, however, delivers low concentrations of radiation to tumors over a period of time. Both are highly effective forms of treatment and represent some of the best technology available for treating tumors and other abnormalities.

Radiotherapy accelerators are complex systems that precisely target cancerous tumors with X-rays and electrons to stop the spread of cancer, to provide relief for cancer patients and, in many cases, to cure the disease.

Sometimes, radiation therapy is the only treatment that is needed. In other cases, it is used before surgery to shrink a tumor or after surgery to stop the growth of cancer cells that may remain. Sometimes, doctors use it in combination with anti-cancer drugs to greatly improve the odds of survival.

How We Plan and Deliver Your Therapy

Once you’ve been referred to our program, you will be given a complete diagnostic work-up by one of our radiation oncologists.

If radiation treatments are needed, you will work with your radiation oncologist and a radiation physicist to recreate or to simulate the part of your body that needs to be treated. This is done using various types of imaging — such as X-rays and MRIs — and a CT-guided simulator to pinpoint and reconstruct, via 3-D imaging, the tumor’s location and to determine its exact dimensions and distances from other parts of the body.

Some simulations are achieved very quickly, while others are quite complicated.

The simulation information is then transferred into a high-tech ADAC 3-D Treatment Planning Computer, a device that develops the actual image and helps the physician and the radiation physicist to determine the doses of radiation and from what angles they should be given.

This is known as conformal radiation therapy and is an extremely precise method of radiation therapy planning.

To prevent X-rays from going to parts of the body that should not receive the radiation, each linear accelerator utilizes a computer-based, tungsten multi-leaf collimator which blocks the radiation beam to normal tissues. Using laser alignment, skin markings and immobilization devices, a radiation therapist will deliver the prescribed dose of radiation.

The various calculations in combination with the blocks make up the “field design,” or the precise plan of action, for your radiation treatment.

After a series of checks and rechecks by the physician and staff, it will be time for you to come in for your treatments. In most cases, we will deliver your therapy on an outpatient basis in a matter of a few minutes per visit. An average course of treatment may run daily for several weeks.

Our oncology nurses and radiation therapists will help you through the entire process from beginning to end.

We’re Accredited by the ACOS

Our services are accredited by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, the agency that approves cancer programs across the country. Also, because of our excellence and regional outreach, The Regional Cancer Center is an active participant in national protocols and academic programs that further cancer research.

If You Have Questions ...

Don’t hesitate to call us. We’re here to help you.

Tennessee: 423.431.600
Virginia: 276.258.1822 

Radiation Therapy Locations