For Patients:

This guide published by the National Cancer Institutes is a very good description for providing Self-Help During Radiation Therapy. This online resource includes a glossary of terms, as well as a guide to common side effects.

This guide published by the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology is also very helpful. It provides a decent explanation differentiating external beam versus brachytherapy (interstitial vs. intracavitary).

What is radiation therapy?

This is a link to OncoLink, a website developed by the University of Pennsylvania.

Another link to the National Cancer Institute fact sheet on radiotherapy.

What is radiobiology?

This is a link to Johns Hopkins University Tumor Radiosurgery site. The concepts can be applied to radiation therapy in general.

What is all the hype surrounding IMRT?

Here is another link.

Simply speaking, the foundation of Radiation Oncology, like all of medicine, is primum non nocere. First do no harm. That is, maximizing dose to the tumor volume while minimizing the radiation dose to normal tissues, most notably critical structures. Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) takes advantage of recent modern technological advancements in the computing world to provide extremely precise external beam radiation treatments. Basically, this means higher cure rates, less side effects, and the ability to treat complex cancers that were otherwise very difficult to control with any modality.

ASTRO-American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology

Includes info for patients, links to associations, journals, etc.

ARRO-Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology

Residencies by State

SCOPE Document addressing the practice of rad onc given the present and future environment of technology. Very interesting…