Norton Cancer Institute offers the most sophisticated radiation therapy services available. The type of radiation therapy prescribed by your radiation oncologist depends on several factors, including the type of cancer, the size of the cancer and the cancer’s location in the body.

Depending on these factors, your radiation oncologist may suggest one of the following types of radiation therapy:

External-beam radiation – radiation is delivered by a machine outside the body
Internal radiation – radioactive material is placed in the body near cancer cells
Systemic radiation – radioactive substances are ingested or injected through a vein and travel through the blood to kill cancer cells

Our radiation oncologists are experts in their field. Their expertise combined with our advanced radiation technology means that we are able to target the area affected by cancer, while at the same time reducing the effects on healthy cells and organs.

For more information about our radiation services, call a Norton Cancer Institute Radiation Center.

Norton Cancer Institute – Downtown
676 S. Floyd St., first floor • Louisville, KY 40202
(502) 629-4555

Norton Cancer Institute Radiation Center – Suburban
4121 Dutchmans Lane • Louisville, KY 40207
(502) 899-6601

Types of radiation treatment avalable:

Novalis Tx radiosurgery shapes the cancer-fighting radiation beam around the tumor or lesion, ensuring the maximum prescribed dose is delivered to the entire tumor or lesion. This frameless radiosurgery offers a more comfortable treatment experience for patients and delivers one of the highest dose rates to treat tumors deep inside the body, including the brain.

HDR technology, high-dose-rate radiation (HDR) brachytherapy technology, allows highly localized radiation to be administered internally to a tumor while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissue and reducing side effects for patients. HDR is used for prostate, breast, brain, thyroid and gynecologic cancers.

IMRT technology may be an option for patients with tumors located near vital organs. IGRT, or image-guided radiation therapy, is the next step in the IMRT program offered at Norton Cancer Institute Radiation Center.

MammoSite® therapy may be an option following a lumpectomy for women with early-stage breast cancer. MammoSite delivers radiation from inside the breast directly to the diseased tissue and allows patients to be treated for a shorter time period (five days) on an outpatient basis

Radiopharmaceuticals are agents used to diagnose certain medical conditions or to treat specific diseases. Radiopharmaceuticals such as Bexxar are used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma, sodium iodine I-131 to treat thyroid cancer, Quadramet to manage bone pain and SIR-Spheres® and TheraSphere to treat inoperable liver cancer.

RapidArc radiotherapy technology provides powerful tumor-destroying radiation but significantly faster, which helps to decrease the time patients have to lie still during treatment. The precise treatment also targets the tumor while sparing normal, healthy tissue, resulting in potentially improved quality of care and patient comfort.

Stereotactic radiosurgery is a highly precise form of radiation therapy primarily used to treat tumors and other abnormalities of the brain. It is a nonsurgical alternative to invasive surgery, especially for the treatment of tumors and blood vessel abnormalities located deep within or close to vital areas of the brain. Using this therapy, precise treatment is delivered directly to the tumor while minimizing radiation exposure to healthy brain tissue.

TheraSphere is a state-of-the-art brachytherapy for inoperable liver cancer. Only a limited number of treatments may be needed to achieve the same therapeutic benefit as multiple treatments with chemotherapy or transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE), making TheraSphere more affordable than other treatments with limited side effects.