Radiation therapy

More than half of all people with cancer will require radiation therapy at some time during the course of treatment. This may be used to destroy or shrink tumors, sometimes before or after cancer surgery, and to help alleviate symptoms.

Advocate Health Care features one of the most comprehensive selections of radiation therapies available anywhere. Our board-certified radiation oncologists will work closely with your cancer care team to find the best option, and carefully plan and monitor each treatment to maximize success. We’ll also be right by your side through every phase of treatment to help you feel well and without major changes to your normal routine.

Find an Advocate Cancer Institute near you.

Targeting tumors with extreme precision

We offer a wide range of radiation therapies – each designed to deliver highly powerful and precise treatment directly to tumors, while sparing as much surrounding healthy tissue as possible and minimizing side effects.

• 3-D conformal treatment planning: Uses computer simulation of the tumor and surrounding areas to shape the radiation beam exactly to the tumor.
• High-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy: Delivers treatment through radioactive material (called “seeds”) implanted near the tumor site, providing targeted doses of radiation to the tumor.
• Intensity-modulated radio therapy (IMRT): One step beyond 3-D conformal treatment planning, this technology involves inverse treatment planning to break the radiation beam into numerous beamlettes. Exact locations of the tumor and healthy structures are used by the computer to determine the intensity of each individual beamlette, sparing as much healthy tissue as possible.
• Intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT): One of the latest technologies to treat breast cancer, IORT delivers targeted radiation treatment directly to the tumor site in surgery immediately following a lumpectomy. This can eliminate the need for external beam radiation after surgery.
• Mammosite®: The device delivers radiation directly to the area where a breast tumor has been surgically removed via lumpectomy, the site where tumors are most likely to recur.
• Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT): Also known as Lutetium 177 dotatate, PRRT is a targeted radiation treatment for patients with Stage 4 neuroendocrine tumors of the small intestine and pancreas. The therapy is designed to destroy cancer cells while protecting healthy tissue and may help these patients have longer term-survival and a better quality of life.
• Radiopharmaceuticals: Radioisotopes used to treat bone metastases and lymphoma
• RapidArc® radiotherapy: A newer form of IMRT that can deliver treatments in less than 10 minutes. Since a patient spends less time holding still, it’s easier to avoid movements that can affect the accuracy of the treatment.
• Yttrium 90 spheres: Radioactive microspheres are injected into the vessel feeding primary and metastatic tumors of the liver.
• Varian TrueBeam® linear accelerator: Synchronizes radiation delivery and real-time tumor tracking for state-of-the-art cancer treatment.
• GRID radiation therapy: Spatially fractionated GRID radiation therapy is a novel technique used to treat large bulky tumors that fail conventional treatment modalities by harnessing innate, in vivo "vaccination" induced by large doses of radiation.