Radiation Oncology in Minnesota

Services

At Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, radiation oncology consulting services and treatment are available for all types of cancer. Because Mayo Clinic is one of the largest radiation treatment facilities in the United States, its doctors and staff have extensive experience in all areas of cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Mayo Clinic has one of the nation's largest and most advanced centers for intraoperative radiation therapy.

The key to successful treatment is getting the appropriate amount of radiation to your cancer while limiting radiation to surrounding healthy tissues. In procedures that involve radiation, specialists carefully monitor doses to avoid the risk of radiation overexposure. Your treatment may include combining radiation with surgery and chemotherapy.

Types of radiation therapy

Mayo Clinic offers state-of-the-art radiation therapy, such as:

• Brachytherapy. Also called internal radiation therapy, brachytherapy (brak-e-THER-uh-pee) involves using radioactive implants (such as seeds) to deliver localized radiation in or near a tumor to help destroy the cancer. For example, in permanent prostate brachytherapy, doctors implant small radioactive seeds near cancerous tissue in the prostate. To kill cancer cells, the seeds are left in place to give off a low dose of radiation that is used up over several weeks or months. In temporary implants, the radioactive seeds are placed into the tumor for just a few minutes. This treatment (high dose rate brachytherapy) is typically repeated a number of times over a few days.
• Three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy (3-D CRT). In this type of treatment, a computer is used to create a 3-D picture of the tumor to conform or match the radiation beam to the shape of the tumor. Many radiation beams are aimed at the tumor from different angles, sparing normal tissue as much as possible.
• Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). IMRT is an advanced type of three-dimensional radiation that conforms to the shape of a tumor. With IMRT, not only are beams aimed at the tumor from several directions, the intensity or strength of the beams can be adjusted to minimize the amount of radiation that reaches normal tissue.
• Intensity modulated arc therapy (IMAT) or Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). IMAT or VMAT is an advanced type of IMRT that utilizes arcs of radiation therapy rather than individual beams.
• Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT). IGRT planning begins with a computerized tomography (CT) scan, and sometimes other imaging scans, to help precisely direct the radiation beams to the targeted tumor tissue. The target is imaged each day prior to treatment to verify the correct position of the patient, target and radiation beams.
• Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT). During the surgical procedure, after the tumor is removed, IORT delivers a concentrated beam of radiation to the tumor site while sparing normal surrounding tissue.
• Stereotactic radiosurgery or radiotherapy. Stereotactic radiosurgery or radiotherapy uses precisely focused radiation beams to treat tumors and other abnormal growths in the brain, spine, liver, lung or other sites. Computers create 3-D images to guide doctors in delivering radiation to the target area with minimal exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. Mayo Clinic's Minnesota campus uses Gamma Knife radiosurgery for treating tumors in the brain. All Mayo Clinic campuses use linear accelerator (LINAC) treatment for lesions and tumors in various areas in the body.

At Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the radiation oncologist works with other cancer specialists on a comprehensive care team to design a customized treatment plan to best treat your cancer. The Division of Radiation Oncology ensures that patients receive accurate and appropriate treatment by undertaking quality assurance procedures.

Read more about radiation therapy at MayoClinic.com.