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UHS Prostate Cancer Center offers radiation therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer exclusively for patients of Urology Health Specialists.

Since you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, there are several options available to you including:

Your urologist has recommended that you meet with a radiation oncologist, a cancer doctor who specializes in treating this disease with radiation therapy. The radiation oncologist will discuss all of your treatment options and help you determine if intensity modulated radiation therapy with daily image guidance (IMRT/IGRT) is right for you. To better assist you in learning more about IMRT/IGRT and your visit to the UHS Prostate Cancer Center, please review the following information.

What is External Beam Radiation Therapy?

External beam radiation therapy (also called radiotherapy) involves a series of daily treatments to accurately deliver radiation to the prostate.

What is IMRT?

IMRT is a state-of-the-art technology that allows doctors to tailor each treatment to an individual patient. Using the CT and MRI, the radiation oncologist instructs the computer how much radiation to be delivered to the prostate and to the surrounding tissues. The computer determines the best way to deliver the treatment by varying, or "modulating," the intensity of each radiation beam.

Why is IGRT Important?

IGRT is used in conjunction with IMRT to ensure that the highly tailored treatment that is created by your clinical team is delivered exactly where it is intended with millimeter precision. Before your treatments begin, your urologist will implant small fiducial markers into your prostate utilizing a simple procedure to direct the radiation oncologist to the exact location of your prostate. During your treatment, state-of-the-art imaging will be used to locate these markers every day and the treatment machine will be realigned to ensure that the prostate is exactly where it should be during your treatment. IGRT has been shown in studies to reduce side effects associated with radiation therapy.

What Patients Can Expect

Consultation Appointment

Your first consultation appointment will take about an hour and consists of the following steps:

Please bring these things with you to your consultation appointment:

Fiducial Marker Placement

If you and the radiation oncologist determine that radiation therapy is the appropriate treatment, you will be scheduled to return to your urologist to have the fiducial markers implanted into your prostate. This process is similar to the biopsy procedure that you had prior to diagnosis.

CT Simulation

The treatment planning sessions, sometimes referred to as simulation, help the radiation oncology team determine the best set-up for the radiation beams to most effectively target the prostate with as little radiation as possible to the healthy tissues around it. These treatment planning sessions will last approximately one hour (and are similar to having a CT scan).

Beginning Your Treatment

Upon completion of treatment planning, your IMRT/IGRT prostate cancer treatment will begin. Treatments will usually take place Monday through Friday at the same appointment time each day (for approximately 2 months).

Your Clinical Team

During your visit to UHS Prostate Cancer Center you will be supported by a team of highly skilled specialists dedicated to your care and prostate cancer treatment.

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