Radiation
Rays of energy.
Radiation is the use of high-energy radiation from x-rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. There are two ways to give radiation therapy:
External Beam Radiation Therapy (XRT or EBRT)
Beams of invisible, high energy light are directed to the area effected by cancer. These beams damage the cells in its path, both the good and the bad. However, the “bad guys” are not as smart as the “good guys” and don’t recover from the beam as well as the good cells do. Between radiation treatments, normal tissues are busy repairing themselves while the bad tumor cells are dying. The goal of radiation is to give as high a dose as possible to the area at risk for tumor recurrence while at the same time limiting the amount of radiation to normal tissues that don’t need it. Unlike chemotherapy, radiation only affects the area of the body being treated. This means no hair loss, nausea or lowered blood counts.
Almost everyone is treated with external beam radiation therapy, the traditional form of radiation. This has decades of evidence of working very well to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence. This type of radiation is traditionally given five days a week, for about 6 to 7 weeks. Each treatment lasts about 10 minutes. You don’t feel radiation when it hits you, and you don’t feel any different right after radiation than right before the treatment. A lot of people ask if they can drive themselves to get radiation every day. Absolutely! If you feel well enough to get to radiation, you’ll feel well enough to get wherever you need to be next. Acute side effects of radiation include fatigue and skin irritation, both of which resolve in the first few weeks after treatment.
Brachytherapy: Close Radiation Therapy (HDR)
For a small percentage of women, high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is used by placing radioactive threads into a balloon-like device that is placed through the skin and fills the cavity left from the lumpectomy. This allows some breast cancers to be treated in only five or so fractions. Brachytherapy can only be used for very small tumors located deep from the skin. The data supporting its use is only a couple years old, and many radiation oncologists still consider this to be an investigational treatment.
