The cancer treatment is known as stereotactic body radiation therapy, or SBRT. It targets cancer cells with extremely focused and strong radiation doses while causing the least harm to healthy tissue. During SBRT, your oncologist will use a computer to precisely aim several radiation beams at your tumour from various angles. You can receive a larger dosage of radiation with this treatment than you might with normal radiation therapy since it is so effective in finding the proper target. Medical professionals use SBRT to treat tiny, solitary cancers that haven’t migrated to other parts of your body.
What types of cancer can be treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy?
Standard brain surgery, which necessitates incisions in the skin, skull, membranes around the brain, and brain tissue, was replaced with stereotactic radiosurgery as a less intrusive and risky option. This form of radiation is mostly used to treat extremely tiny tumours, such as lung cancer, cancer that originated in the liver, cancer that has migrated to the liver and malignancy that has spread to the brain and spinal cord.
The body parts previously receiving radiation therapy can also be treated using stereotactic radiotherapy. If your cancer has come back or you have a tumour that can’t be treated with other forms of radiation, you could also be provided SBRT. Another benefit of SBRT is that it may be used to treat pancreatic and prostate cancer successfully.
Benefits of stereotactic body radiation therapy
The use of stereotactic body radiation therapy has changed how we treat a variety of malignancies, including tumours of the head and neck, spine, pancreas, and liver. SBRT can lessen the incidence of treatment-related adverse effects while increasing the chances that the tumour will be removed. Some significant benefits of this method include:
⦁ It can help treat individuals for whom there were previously no treatment alternatives, such as those who are not eligible for surgery and those who have already had radiation therapy.
⦁ Instead of the 6-8 week course of treatment required by traditional radiation therapy, it can be finished in about 1 to 2 weeks.
⦁ This therapy delivers high-dose radiation to the tumour using a variety of distinctive, precisely formed beams.
⦁ Only a portion of the individual beams travels through healthy tissue, minimizing adverse effects by lowering the radiation exposure to normal organs surrounding the tumour.
⦁ The chance of eliminating the tumour is high with this cancer treatment therapy.
⦁ Compared to conventional fractionated radiation therapy, the high level of precision enables the safe delivery of significantly greater radiation doses.
How does this method work?
Radiation beams are concentrated on a tumour or another target using special tools. A focused dose of radiation is supplied to the location where all the beams connect, yet each beam has little impact on the tissue it passes through. Your cancer cells’ DNA is damaged by radiation, which prevents them from multiplying and dividing. Tumours shrink due to the high radiation dosage administered to the afflicted region, and blood vessels eventually collapse, depriving the tumour of its blood supply.
There is little harm to the healthy surrounding tissues due to stereotactic radiosurgery’s accuracy. Comparing radiotherapy to conventional surgery or radiation therapy, the risk of side effects is often reduced. One or more sessions of therapy planning are necessary for this. During these sessions, the patient will experience sophisticated imaging procedures, such as a CT or MRI.
These pictures allow oncologists to precisely map the tumour’s position and structure. A moment video of the patient breathing will be taken if the tumour is within or close to the lungs of the medical staff. The doctor will use the video to incorporate motion into the therapy plan. “external radiation treatment” refers to SBRT, in which a doctor delivers radiation to the tumour from outside the body.
Side effects of employing stereotactic body radiation therapy
The adverse effects of SBRT are often less severe than conventional radiation treatment since just a tiny portion of your body is exposed to radiation. Frequently, these adverse effects are transient. After your radiation treatment, you can have fatigue, which increases tiredness. It is typical and should improve in 3–4 weeks following therapy. Skin problems are also possible, including redness, itching, and swelling at the radiation site.
As a result of stereotactic body radiation therapy-induced lung inflammation, you can experience breathing difficulties following treatment. After therapy, you might experience pain in your ribs or chest wall. Infection of the nerve terminals in the chest wall is the reason for this. After therapy, you can experience diarrhoea or nausea. Due to the liver’s sensitivity to radiation, this occurs often. Following treatment, your urination may be frequent and urgent.
According to research, SBRT can be a successful therapy for certain malignancies. SBRT enables medical professionals to target tumours while decreasing radiation’s influence on adjacent organs and tissues. Consult Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, one of the leading oncologists in the Delhi-National Capital Region, if you want the best stereotactic body radiation therapy for cancer treatment. He participates actively on several tumour boards and has done much work in radiation oncology.