Radiation Oncology

A common treatment for cancer, radiation oncology uses high-energy x-rays, gamma rays, electrons or radioactive materials to kill cancer cells, to stop or slow their growth and treat patients for pain or symptom relief (palliation). Cancer Care Northwest provides the following radiation therapy techniques:

• External Beam: A machine directs high-energy beams of radiation through the skin to the cancer.  
• High Dose Rate Brachytherapy: Radioactive sources are placed inside or near the tumor.  
• Radiopharmaceuticals: A radioactive drug travels through the body, finds and sticks to the cancerous tissue and delivers radiation.  
• Gamma Knife: Radiosurgery that uses precisely guided radiation to destroy tumors. 

More than half of people with cancer get radiation therapy. Radiation therapy may be the only kind of cancer treatment you need, and other times it is combined with other treatment methods. Radiation therapy is used today as a safe and effective treatment that is offered at three Cancer Care Northwest locations in Spokane.  Radiation therapy is used to:

• Destroy cancer cells
• Shrink a tumor so that it can be more easily removed by your surgical oncologist
• Eliminate remaining cancer cells after surgery
• Reduce the risk of recurrence
• Slow the growth or shrink tumors to alleviate pain or other problems.
• Cure many types of cancers without the need of any other therapy

Our radiation oncologists are board-certified physicians who specialize in the use of radiation therapy to treat cancer. The radiation oncologists are among the most technologically savvy in the region, with expertise in external beam radiation therapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, gamma knife radiosurgery for brain tumors, and brachytherapy for prostate, intravascular, breast and gynecologic cancers. The radiation team includes radiation therapists, medical physicists, dosimetrists, nurses and imaging technologists.