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Advanced Radiation Therapies

196 views · Published 11 December 2015 · 1:48 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: Lee Health · 2015 · Science & Technology

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Radiation therapy is part of the triad of cancer treatment, along with surgery and chemotherapy; of the three fields it may be the most technology-driven.

“The name of our game is always to target x-rays into a very exact location. We can damage cancer cells and kill cancer cells, but we always have to be very aware of the normal tissue surrounding them. So how we target cancer cells has changed a lot in the last several decades,” says Dr. Arie Dosoretz, a radiation oncologist on medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System. 
Modern radiation therapy allows doctors to more precisely target tumors. Several of the newest technologies are being used in southwest Florida. One example is stereotactic radiotherapy.

“Which is a very high dose of radiation given over very few fractions. So the typical course of radiation for most cancers is still about six weeks with daily treatment. But there are some cancers that we can do in three to five total treatments,” says Dr. Dosoretz.  
This high-dose, focused treatment is well suited to treat early stage lung cancer, female cancers even some brain tumors. 
“Sometimes patients will get brain lesions that have spread from somewhere else to the brain or lesions that have started in the brain itself. And so we’re also able to treat these lesions using stereotactic radiation with a small number of fractions,” says Dr. Dosoretz. 
Another advanced use of radiation is to deliver it from the inside. More treatments are available that use radioactive seeds or pellets, strategically placed in or near a tumor it delivers high doses of radiation without harming nearby tissue. The technique is called internal, or brachytherapy.

“Brachytherapy has been used over several decades has been for prostate cancer but it turns out we can also do brachytherapy for skin cancers, too. So there are some instances where you have spots that are small on the skin that we can effectively treat in a very small number of treatments,” says Dr. Dosoretz. 
These techniques provide sharper tools and opportunities for doctors to target and defeat cancer. 

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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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