Brewer - Radiation is a common treatment for people with cancer.

But the procedure is often time consuming and can zap a patient's energy.

Radio surgery at the Lafayette Family Cancer Center in Brewer is changing all that.

Joy Hollowell introduces us to this cutting edge technology.

=====
"At least 50% of patients with cancer in the United States will receive radiation of some sort."

The therapy is most effective for large tumors, according to Dr. William Castrucci, a Radiation Oncologist at CancerCare of Maine. Conventional radiation treatments typically last six to eight weeks, with patients coming in Monday through Friday.

"And yes, we have patients who travel over two hours each way, each day," says Dr. Castrucci.

CancerCare of Maine is one of only a handful of facilities in the Northeast now performing a technique known as Radio Surgery. There's no cutting involved. Instead, a very intense beam of radiation is aimed directly at the tumor.

"We're treating these tumors to within one millimeter of precision," explains Dr. Castrucci.

And unlike conventional radiation therapy, Radio Surgery can be done in as little as one treatment.

"The purpose of this is to not only allow us to give a higher dose to that tumor that we're treating, but also to minimize as much as possible, dose to the normal surrounding tissues," says Dr. Castrucci.

So far, Radio Surgery has been performed on about 50 lung tumors and 50 brain tumors at CancerCare of Maine, according to Dr. Castrucci. It's also used for spine and liver cancers. Doctors hope to broaden that list in the next few years.

"Radio surgery is only appropriate in a certain number of people and in certain situations," cautions Dr. Castrucci.

Fatigue and a sort of sun-burn are some of the side affects with conventional forms of radiation. But because radio surgery delivers the radiation to a much smaller area...

"the side affects in general are less with radio surgery than with conventional forms of radiation," says Dr. Castrucci.

+++

Print this Story