Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease originating in the pancreas, an organ with responsibilities for blood sugar regulation and food digestion. It rarely is detected in its early stages, and as a result it is difficult to treat and frequently fatal. Commonly, radiation therapy is used in the early and middle stages of pancreatic cancer in combination with surgery and chemotherapy.
Understanding Radiation Therapy
Radiation therapy uses focused doses of X-ray radiation to slow or kill cancer cells. It comes in two basic forms. External beam radiation uses a special machine to generate controlled X-ray bursts that can be targeted at a specified location in the body. Brachytherapy uses tiny radioactive pellets that are implanted in the body at the site of a tumor, where they slowly release cancer-killing radiation into the surrounding area. Over time, the radiation dissipates, leaving behind harmless remnants of the original pellets.
Radiation Therapy and Surgery
If you are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that has not yet metastasized, or spread, to other parts of your body, your doctor typically will schedule you for surgery as quickly as possible. Because the cancer rarely is caught early, urgent action may be needed to slow it down before metastasis occurs. In some instances, your first dose of radiation treatment may come prior to surgery. If so, you will receive a dosage of external beam radiation specified by your surgeon or cancer specialist, an oncologist. Radiation therapy also may be used during your surgery to improve the chances of eliminating your cancer cells. This "intraoperative" form of treatment also employs external beam radiation. Alternatively, you may receive a radiation treatment in the aftermath of surgery.
Radiation Therapy and Chemotherapy
Due in part to its aggressive progression, pancreatic cancer often is diagnosed only after it has metastasized. In these instances, surgery will not curb the disease. Instead, you may be treated with doses of radiation therapy combined with system-wide doses of chemotherapy, an approach sometimes referred to as chemoradiation.
Potential Side Effects
Side effects of your radiation therapy may include itching, fatigue, lowered blood counts, vomiting, nausea, increased chances of infection, red, burning or painful skin at the site of treatment and skin tissue death or loss of the skin's outer layer. These symptoms may be partially controlled through a well-planned approach that spaces out your individual dosages while maintaining overall treatment effectiveness.
Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy
Conventional forms of external beam radiation also typically cause some degree of collateral damage to healthy tissue surrounding cancer cells. To combat this tendency, your doctor may use a newer form of external beam treatment called intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), which allows for much greater control of the focused X-ray beam and decreases the chances of spillover to normal tissue. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, IMRT produces significant side effect decreases in the vast majority of pancreatic cancer patients. Consult your oncologist about the risks and benefits of all forms of radiation treatment for pancreatic cancer.
Tags: pancreatic cancer, beam radiation, cancer cells, external beam, external beam radiation, radiation therapy, Radiation Therapy