About Radiation Oncology

Radiation therapy characteristics

Depending on the characteristics of your disease and your general health, typical radiation therapy may be as short as a single session (irradiation) of a few minutes or be as prolonged as 7 weeks with daily treatments during the working week and with no treatments on weekend days. In some cases you will be treated with external beam radiation theapy while in other (mostly gynecological cancers) brachytherapy will also be included. Brachytherapy applications are typically set once a week for several weeks. In some cases, your radiation therapy treatment may be preceded by one or more cycles of chemotherapy or be given concurrently (during the treatment with radiation therapy) or after it. Similarly, you may be subjected to radiation therapy either before or after surgery. Whichever radiation therapy is undertaken, your team of cancer care providers will be constantly with you. They will help you assess treatment-related side-effects, your progress and timely respond to all of your needs.