Radiotherapy treatment

What is external beam radiotherapy?

External beam radiotherapy uses high-energy radiation beams to destroy cancer cells. Before your treatment begins, we’ll take some imaging scans to establish the precise shape, size and location of the tumour. If your treatment is after your tumour removal surgery, then we’ll take scans to examine the area where the tumour was removed.

What is surface guided radiotherapy (SGRT)?

SGRT uses sophisticated 3D camera technology to accurately target and kill cancer cells.

What is DIBH?

Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) is a simple method that combines a breathing technique and radiotherapy to treat cancers in the breast and chest wall. Radiotherapy is precisely targeted so there’s less chance of damage to the heart, lungs and liver.

What is image-guided radiotherapy?

IGRT uses X-rays and scans before, and during, your treatment. It’s used to verify your position and anatomy before the treatment machine is turned on.

• The scans show the exact shape, size and location of the tumour. We can then make tiny adjustments to precisely target the treatment area
• IGRT can target cancers that move during, or between, treatment sessions. For example, lung cancers that move as you breathe. Or prostate cancer that can move depending on whether your bowel is full or empty

What is intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)?

IMRT is a ‘conformal’ radiotherapy. This means radiation beams are shaped to surround the treatment area, so it avoids damaging surrounding healthy tissue.

What is volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT)?

Volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) is a type of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) – where the radiation beams are shaped to fit the target area.

VMAT is a new type of IMRT that delivers a continuous beam of radiotherapy in an arc as the machine (called a linac) moves around you. It automatically changes the beam shape and radiation dose as it moves.

This makes it very accurate and maximises radiation to the tumour while the surrounding healthy tissue receives a much lower dose. This reduces the risk of side effects and means that VMAT can be used when the tumour is close to critical organs, because it helps protect them from being damaged by radiation.

VMAT is used for many cancers, including breast and prostate.

At GenesisCare, we also use VMAT to treat skin cancerisation. Skin cancerisation is dry scaly patches of skin, caused by long-term sun damage. Although it is not cancerous there is a chance it may eventually turn into skin cancer if the area isn’t treated.

What is SABR?

SABR is a non-invasive, advanced radiotherapy technique that targets tumours using highly focused beams of radiation and shorter treatment schedules to destroy cancer cells with minimal damage to surrounding healthy tissues.

SABR can be used to treat localised tumours (where the cancer is only found in the tissues where it started) in the pancreas, liver, prostate, kidney, and lung. It can also be used to delay the growth of secondary cancers (where the cancer has spread to other tissues in the body) in the liver, bone, lung, and brain.

What is SABR reirradiation?

SABR reirradiation is the use of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) to deliver repeat radiotherapy to an area where cancer has recurred, or secondary cancers have developed following an initial course of radiotherapy treatment. SABR is a specialist technique that uses highly focused beams of radiation that target the tumour with precision accuracy, minimising exposure to surrounding healthy tissues and organs.

At GenesisCare all cases of SABR reirradiation are discussed by our SABR Advisory Team (SAT) with many patients being referred because they’re not suitable for surgery or other local ablative techniques. Because each case is unique, input from our physics team enables us to tailor treatment to the individual needs of the patient meaning we’re delivering truly personalised care. The most common sites for reirradiation include the prostate, pelvis, liver, lung, pancreas and spine.

What is tomotherapy?

Tomotherapy is a type of IMRT. It combines the technologies of a CT scanner (providing 3D images) and an IMRT machine to accurately target a tumour.

• Creating a 3D image of the tumour means we can target the beams precisely. We adjust the treatment to the size, shape and location of the treatment area
• The tumour is given a very high dose of radiation. The healthy surrounding tissue gets a much lower dose, reducing the risk of side-effects

What is the MRIdian MR linac?

An MR linac is an advanced radiotherapy technology that combines high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning techniques with extremely powerful radiotherapy beams to treat tumours more accurately and quicker than conventional radiotherapy. This type of radiotherapy is called magnetic resonance image guided radiotherapy (MRIgRT).

At GenesisCare, we’re proud to be the first independent healthcare provider in the UK to introduce the MRIdian – an advanced MR linac. It’s the only MR linac to have automated beam control – if your tumour moves slightly during treatment, the radiotherapy beam will automatically pause until it comes back into position. More than 20,000* people worldwide have already benefitted from having been treated with the MRIdian.

MRI-guided radiotherapy is a promising treatment option for tumours near other major organs where limiting damage to healthy tissue is paramount or in organs that move a lot, for example, due to breathing. This makes it suitable for:

• Kidney cancer
• Liver cancer
• Lung cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Recurrent prostate cancer

*20,000 patients treated worldwide with MRIdian as of April 2022.

What is neuro-oncology?

Neuro-oncology is the study and treatment of tumours that are found in the brain and spinal cord.

We are proud to offer a world-class neuro-oncology service, with unrivalled expertise and state-of-the-art technology. We are a leading private provider of stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), an advanced ‘brain-sparing’ radiotherapy approach for brain tumours. This technique is widely recognised for its ability to preserve quality of life in people with cancers that have spread to the brain, known as brain metastases.

Our neuro-oncology service is comprised of multidisciplinary consultant-led teams which include expert specialist neuro-oncologists, neuroscientists, therapeutic radiographers, neuroradiologists, medical physicists and clinical nurse specialists. By combining this expertise with world-class technology, we offer exceptional care tailored to you to maximise your chance of the best possible outcome.

What are prostate spacers?

Spacers reduce the radiation exposure to the rectum during prostate cancer radiotherapy meaning fewer side effects and better quality of life. At GenesisCare we offer spacers at no extra cost to patients who haven’t had their prostate removed and who are undergoing VMAT radiotherapy for prostate cancer.

What are fiducial markers?

Fiducial markers are tiny gold or platinum objects the size of a grain of rice, which a consultant urologist inserts into your prostate prior to prostate radiotherapy. They’re used to improve treatment set-up and enable treatment to be delivered precisely the same way each time and target the tumour with greater accuracy.  This helps to reduce toxicity to surrounding healthy organs, resulting in fewer side effects.

Gamma Knife radiosurgery is an established stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) technique for tumours, vascular malformations and other abnormalities of the brain. The Gamma Knife is an advanced radiotherapy machine which is able to deliver large doses of precisely targeted radiation, minimising radiation to the surrounding healthy brain tissue and reducing the risk of damage to it.

Stereotactic radiosurgery, or SRS, is an advanced radiotherapy technique that precisely delivers multiple beams of radiation to a brain or spinal tumour, sometimes in a single treatment session. Despite its name, SRS is not surgery – it doesn’t involve any incisions and the procedure is painless.

SRS is often referred to as a ‘brain-sparing’ radiotherapy approach as it’s widely recognised for its ability to preserve the quality of life in people with cancers that have spread to the brain (brain metastases).