Solinsky Center for Cancer Care at The Elliot

In order to reach the radiation oncologist at night, on holidays, or weekends, please call (603) 663-1800 and ask the operator to contact the radiation oncologist on call.

In order to reach the medical oncologist at night, on holidays, or on weekends, please call (603) 622-6484 to have the provider paged.

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Radiation Oncology

Treatment Techniques

Stereotactic

SRS
Stereotactic Radio Surgery is used for treating sites that require especially large doses of radiation and that are close to especially sensitive healthy tissues. For example, some brain tumors. With this technique, we can treat with a beam as small as 4 mm across delivered with a precision that is better than 1 mm. Image guidance plays an especially important part in this treatment technique.

SBRT
Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) is an exciting new technique for treating small cancers in the lungs, liver and spine. SBRT allows delivery of much higher doses of radiation to the tumor in fewer treatment sessions while giving much lower doses of radiation to the surrounding healthy tissue. For patients who may be too frail to undergo surgery for their lung or liver cancer, SBRT is often an excellent non-invasive treatment option.

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IMRT

IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy) is a sophisticated radiation planning and delivery technology that allows radiation dose to closely conform to the shape of the tumor, even when it is irregularly shaped. It can be used to treat cancers in many different parts of the body to reduce the amount of radiation given to the normal tissue immediately adjacent to the tumor, allowing the tumor to be treated safely to higher doses than otherwise possible.

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IGRT – CBCT, Stereoscopic KV Imaging

IGRT (image-guided radiation therapy) is a process of taking images of the patient while in the treatment position immediately prior to delivering radiation to ensure that the patient is accurately positioned. It allows for precise, highly conformal radiation therapy plans to be delivered with confidence.

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3D Conformal Treatment

3D-CRT (three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy) combines multiple radiation treatment fields to deliver precise doses of radiation to the affected area. Tailoring each of the radiation beams to focus on the tumor delivers a high dose of radiation to the tumor and avoids nearby healthy tissue.

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Breathe hold – DIBH

Deep-Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) is used to help avoid unnecessarily treating the heart when treating cancers of the left breast. The technology which allows this has dramatically reduced the dose to the heart in such treatments in the years since 2012 when we introduced it to Southern New Hampshire.

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4D CT In 4D CT the fourth dimension is time. Motion caused by breathing can influence the position of the tumor in some cancers – most notably lung cancer. 4D CT allows us to image the tumor in three dimensions as it moves due to breathing. This motion can then be accounted for in the planning of the radiation treatment.

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EMR

Electronic Medical Record – In a Radiation Oncology department, the EMR functions well beyond the normal use as a record of medications and appointments. It also records all of the parameters used at the linear accelerator in a daily treatment and then verifies that those parameters are correctly applied in each treatment thereafter.

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HDR / Brachytherapy

Brachytherapy is treatment from within. In these treatments, a radioactive source is placed either within the tumor or as close to is as can be achieved through a catheter or other type of applicator. Until this type of unit was enlisted for treatment, therapy often required admission to the hospital for several days. This unit -- the High Dose Rate Afterloader -- uses a very active source of radiation that is administered remotely and treatments last only a few minutes. The radioactivity is entirely self-contained and you will not be contaminated in any way upon completion of a treatment.