Ionizing radiation and other modalities are used by a Radiation Oncologist to treat malignant and benign diseases. Additionally, Radiation Oncologists utilize various technological devices to help in treatment planning and execution.
How Do You Go About Being A Radiation Oncologist?
Five years of training are required: one year of general clinical practice followed by four years of radiation oncology training.
What Is The Job Of A Radiation Oncologist?
For breast cancer Newport Beach, Radiation oncology is a field of clinical medicine that uses ionizing radiation to treat both malignant and benign diseases.
The radiation oncologist leads a team of nurses, radiation therapists, dosimetrists, and medical physicists who collaborate on the diagnosis, preparation, delivery, and follow-up of radiation patients.
Radiation oncology was once considered a subspecialty of radiology, known as therapeutic radiology, in its early years of development. Radiologists received training in both diagnostic and therapeutic radiology during this period.
When both of these fields became more complicated over time, the preparation and qualification systems for radiation oncology and diagnostic radiology became separated.
While some radiation oncologists prefer to specialize in a particular disease site, they are qualified and certified to treat a wide range of diseases like breast cancer Newport Beach. They utilize a variety of radiation modalities, with the core goal of maximizing therapeutic gain while reducing radiation exposure to normal tissues. Ionizing radiation is made up of X-rays, gamma rays, and charged particles like protons that have enough energy to detach closely bound electrons from atoms, resulting in ions.
Ionizing radiation may be administered via external beam therapy or brachytherapy, which requires the implantation of radionuclides. Conventional external beam radiation usually entails regular fractionated treatments over a period of 2 to 8 weeks.
Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) are newer technologies that provide extremely precise and highly potent radiation therapies in 1 to 5 fractions. Technological developments include intra-operative radiation, IMRT, IGRT, and protons.