What is radiotherapy?

Radiotherapy aims to use ionising radiation to destroy malignant cells.

Radiotherapy, in any of its modalities, is a treatment that will receive more than 60% of patients diagnosed with cancer.

According to the positioning of the radiation source, there is a distinction between:

• External beam radiotherapy: the rays are emitted from a particle accelerator (photons, electrons, protons). There is a range of apparatus types, meaning that various irradiation techniques are available: intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT), stereotactic radiation therapy (SRT), radiosurgery (SRS) or proton therapy…
• Brachytherapy: the radiation source is implanted in the patient in contact with the tumour. This technique is only used for tumours in certain parts of the body as uterus, cervix and prostate.

The enormous technological and other developments experienced in recent years have led to an increasingly safer and more effective treatment with a greater number of indications. This evolution is still in progress, and radiotherapy in the coming years will continue to advance spectacularly in terms of greater precision, lower toxicity and greater patient cure.

Technical resources

Fondación Jiménez Díazhas the most advanced techniques available including image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), adaptive radiotherapy (redesign treatment in real time)and proton therapy.

Currently, they are four external beam machines including one proton therapy facility and one MR Linac, and one device for high dose rate brachytherapy.

Sole treatment or combined therapy

Several factors determine the choice of the type and technique of radiotherapy to be employed, the dose to be administered and the required number of sessions (tumour type, localisation and extent; the patient’s past medical and surgical history; etc.).

Depending on the treatment protocol decided in a multidisciplinary cancer meeting at Fondación Jiménez Díaz or in another hospital, radiotherapy may be advised as the sole treatment or in combination with chemotherapy, targeted therapy, immunotherapy or hormone therapy. It may be administered before surgery to reduce tumour size or given after surgery.