Brown Cancer Center Radiation Oncology Team
Radiation Oncology Expertise
At the Brown Cancer Center, we customize each treatment to meet the patient’s medical and lifestyle needs.
Your medical team may have included radiation therapy as part of
your treatment plan. The following information is designed to explain
what you can expect during this phase of your treatment.
Customized Radiation Therapy Customization
It’s an axiom to live by at the Brown Cancer Center – especially when it comes to radiation therapy. The Brown Cancer Center offers patients a broad scope of leading-edge technology and latest equipment that can be tailored to each patient’s needs. It also provides patients with top-notch radiation oncologists – many of whom specialize in a specific type of cancer.
Multidisciplinary Approach to Care
Our radiation oncologists are an integral part of multidisciplinary cancer teams that come together to develop tailored treatment plans for each cancer patient based on type of cancer, stage, lifestyle needs and overall health. Brown Cancer Center patients benefit from the combined expertise of many physicians and staff from various specialties. This approach ensures patients who need several different therapies to treat their cancer will receive the ideal combination. More importantly, each patient’s treatment plan is as individual as the patient.
State-of-the-Art Equipment
Over the past several years, the Brown Cancer Center has invested in the latest and most effective radiation therapy equipment for better outcomes and treatment options for our patients. We continue to evolve our therapies as newer and better technology becomes available. Our goal is to fight cancer while minimizing side effects and accommodating patients’ lifestyle needs.
Radiation Treatment Options and Equipment
- Brachyinfusion
- External Beam
- High-Dose Rate Brachytherapy
- IGRT (Image-Guided Radiation Therapy)
- IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy)
- IORT (Intraoperative Radiation Therapy) utilizing the Mobetron
- Low-Dose Rate Brachytherapy
- Mobile Linear Accelerator in the Operating Room
- Radiopharmaceutical Therapy by Intravenous Administration
- Radiopharmaceutical Therapy by Oral Administration
TomoTherapy Hi-Art System®
The Brown Cancer Center was among the first in the United States to offer patients treatment with the TomoTherapy Hi-Art System®, the most advanced form of radiation therapy available. It provides 3-D imaging immediately prior to each treatment to verify the location of a patient’s tumor. It then delivers painless and precise radiation therapy from 360 degrees. This allows for a more accurate and more precise treatment of the tumor, while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. Some types of tumors can change shape or even shift from day to day. With TomoTherapy’s sophisticated form of Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), physicians can be sure that each treatment is targeted right where it should be. The Brown Cancer Center is the only facility in the area where TomoTherapy is available.
The Trilogy™ System
The Trilogy™ System is the world’s first Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) system optimized for both conventional and stereotactic approaches to treating cancer. Trilogy’s 3-D system enables physicians to choose and use the most appropriate treatment for cancer in the body or the head and neck and to deliver the full spectrum of treatments, all on one machine in a single room. When Trilogy comes online in May, the Brown Cancer Center will be the only facility in the area where it is available.
MammoSite® RTS
MammoSite® RTS is a radiation therapy device that recently was approved by the FDA. In March of 2005, the Brown Cancer Center began using MammoSite to treat breast cancer patients, making it the first in Louisville to do so. MammoSite is used on early stage breast cancer patients who have had a lumpectomy. It delivers internal radiation directly to the tissue surrounding the site of the removed tumor. Radiation is delivered by inserting the radiation source through a catheter. This delivery system is site-specific and reduces damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. It is minimally invasive and treatment only lasts five days, as compared to the traditional seven weeks of whole breast external beam radiation therapy. Some patients find it hard to complete almost two months of radiation therapy. They may find it difficult to take time from work or other responsibilities, or their treatment centers may be far from home. MammoSite avoids the disruption of work and family responsibilities which accompany standard external beam therapy and avoids daily trips to a treatment Center that may be far from home. This combination of surgery and radiation works well to prevent local recurrence of the tumor.
Mobetron
The Brown Cancer Center is the third facility in the world to use the Mobetron, a mobile linear accelerator for intraoperative administration of radiation therapy (IORT). This technology allows physicians to apply concentrated beams of radiation directly to the cancerous tumor when it is exposed during surgery. Because Mobetron produces an electron beam rather than the photon beam in conventional X-ray methods, it delivers precision high dosages of radiation safely to the patient. In addition, this equipment is mobile, can be used in an ordinary operating room without the expense of concrete shielding and patients don’t have to be transported to another part of the hospital for treatment. Mobetron reduces the number of outpatient visits and may increase survival with fewer side effects. The Brown Cancer Center is the only cancer facility in Kentucky where Mobetron is available.