Prostate IGRT Radiation Treatment

A new technology at North Shore Radiation Therapy enables physicians to precisely adjust for daily variations in the position of a tumor before treating it with high doses of radiation.The medical community has a new way to offer patients prostate cancer treatment. This new technology, Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), helps to pinpoint the treatment position for radiation therapy and correct for daily changes in tumor location due to set-up uncertainties, weight, and organ movement.
This technology, which is embedded in a linear accelerator, a device that delivers radiation therapy, allows Radiation Oncologists on Long Island to generate real-time CT images of the patient's anatomy directly from the treatment machine. Within seconds, calculations determine if an adjustment is needed to align the tumor perfectly within the radiation beam. Any corrections, which may be as tiny as 1 to 2 millimeters, are automatically made by adjusting the position of the patient before treatment.
Unlike conventional radiation therapy, the real-time imaging used in IGRT allows each radiation therapy treatment to be delivered to its intended site with pinpoint accuracy, sparing healthy surrounding tissue without significantly increasing the total dose to the patient.
This technology collects treatment data and helps report the effectiveness og treatment. This allows your Radiation Oncologist to further refine treatment techniques to adapt to changs that may occur during your treatment course at North Shore Radiation Therapy.

Through it's precision targeting, IGRT can mitigate many of the side effects caused by radiation therapy, such as dry mouth, weight loss, dry skin, fatigue, nausea and bowel dysfunction.
If you would like to receive a consultation by one of our Board Certified, American College of Radiation Oncology physicians, please call us at (631) 427-2273. This treatment is offered in both our Smithtown and Greenlawn Centers on Long Island in New York.