If there were a one-size-fits-all or one-size-fits-most approach to beating cancer, treatment would be simplified. But the reality is, when it comes to cancer treatment, it’s way more complex.
Experts consider a person’s age, overall health, sex, stage of cancer, type of cancer, and with genetic mapping the list goes on and on. Then they look at different approaches — sometimes with just one therapy and other times with a multi-pronged approach, including using a combination of different tools like surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or immunotherapy and radiation.
Based on all the treatments available, doctors present different options to a patient, giving their expert recommendation on a treatment course. Then ultimately, the approach taken to treat the cancer becomes a patient’s choice.
So, can radiation replace chemotherapy? The experts at CyberKnife Center of Miami, South Florida’s premiere cancer treatment center, believe sometimes the answer is yes, sometimes it’s no, sometimes patients need both, and sometimes the treatment course depends on the doctors you see.
That’s why CyberKnife Miami recommends getting a second opinion.
No matter what treatment you ultimately decide to go with, it’s important to understand that radiation and chemotherapy attack cancer in different ways. That’s why they can be used together or separately.
Chemotherapy for Cancer
Chemotherapy is used to treat hundreds of different cancers.
It works by killing cancer cells and preventing the cancer from growing, according to the National Cancer Institute. Chemotherapy can shrink tumors before radiation or surgery, enhance how other treatments work, ease symptoms of the disease, and treat metastatic cancer.
Chemotherapy can be given orally, through an IV, port, catheter or injection, and even topically. But like any other treatments, chemotherapy has its limitations. Generally, it cannot be the only therapy used on aggressive or advanced cancers, according to Worldwide Cancer Research.
Radiation for Cancer
Radiation alone can be used to treat early-stage prostate cancer, lung cancers, skin cancers, head and neck cancers, cervical cancers, brain tumors, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Radiation kills cancer and slows its growth by damaging cancer cells’ DNA. It can be delivered either externally or internally, and there are many different types of each. About 60-65% of all cancer patients will require radiation at some point in their cancer treatments.
Radiation with CyberKnife
One of the most precise forms of external radiation is CyberKnife, a type of stereotactic body radiation therapy or SBRT, that uses image-guided robotic technology to deliver targeted radiation directly to the cancer or tumor without harming healthy tissue.
CyberKnife can be used to treat lung, brain, head and neck, spine, liver, pancreas, prostate and kidney cancers, according to Accuray, the maker of CyberKnife.
“CyberKnife is the most refined way to target a tumor and minimize the dose to normal tissue,” according to Dr. Mark Pomper, board-certified radiation oncologist and medical director of the CyberKnife Center of Miami, the premiere radiation center of excellence for cancer treatment in South Florida.
The CyberKnife Miami Advantage
The team at CyberKnife Miami has helped thousands of patients who opted for radiation alone, those who chose radiation along with other treatment modalities, patients who were told they couldn’t have more radiation, and even patients who were told their tumors were inoperable.
“Patients who have been told that “there is nothing else that can be done” or that “surgery is too dangerous” may be perfect candidates for CyberKnife cancer treatment, according to Dr. Pomper.
And that’s the CyberKnife Miami advantage.
“This is what we do all day, every day. We know what can and cannot be treated,” he says.
And we are here for you, whether it’s to explain different treatment pathways or provide a second opinion in what’s often a difficult choice.
We arm our patients with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions. And we work with each patient to make sure each one of them receives the best treatment possible.
If you would like to find out more about radiation cancer treatment with CyberKnife, call us at 305-279-2900 and go to our website now for more information www.cyberknifemiami.com.