Specialists at Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa are now treating women diagnosed with cancer of the cervix or endometrium with an advanced therapy that is both highly effective and more convenient for patients.
The technique is called high dose rate radiation therapy, or HDR. Specialists use HDR to better treat women with certain kinds of cancer.
HDR is used following the surgical removal of tumors of the cervix or endometrium, which is the lining of the uterus. Cancer specialists use HDR to focus an external beam of radiation from a high activity radiation source precisely upon areas where there is a high risk for the cancer to re-develop.
Previously, these patients needed to stay in the hospital for one or two days to receive radiation therapy. HDR treatment sessions are delivered on an outpatient basis in three, 10-minute sessions per week, so thereีs no need to stay in the hospital.
"HDR shortens the overall period of treatment," said Geraldine Jacobson, M.D., UI associate professor (clinical) in radiation oncology. "We have a lot of patients at this institution who come from big distances. Some of them stay here and then go home on weekends, so it would certainly be an advantage to finish their radiation in a quicker period of time."
This advanced therapy can also eliminate some of the side effects associated with traditional radiation therapy.
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