Gastrointestinal Tumors - Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreatic cancer is best managed by surgery first if possible. Radiation and chemotherapy are given afterwards because studies have shown the survival time to be significantly increased compared with surgery alone. If the cancer is not resectable, then a combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy is used. The pancreas is located deep in the abdomen and surrounded by many organs including the kidneys, small bowel, liver, stomach, spleen, and spinal cord. Due to these intimate relationships with other organs, treatment planning/targeting is very important way to reduce potential side effects. We therefore employ 3D conformal radiation to accomplish this task.
A new planning and delivering technique called Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy or IMRT is being used to treat various cancers including pancreatic cancer. By using computer-generated images, we are able to plan and deliver a very exquisitely shaped beam that hugs the cancerous tissue with a tighter margin while sparing the normal cells to a much higher degree. This precise technique allows us to increase the cancer-killing dose while simultaneously decreasing the side effects of the treatment.
