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Radiation Therapy – Creating the Plan for Treatment

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Radiation Therapy – Creating the Plan for Treatment

3 Key Takeaways:

  • Patient education is paramount in radiation therapy, and the Advanced Prostate Cancer Institute provides thorough explanations of what to expect.
  • Technology is used to calculate doses of radiation and minimize exposure to surrounding organs and tissues.
  • Advanced Urology Institute is committed to a comprehensive and patient-centered approach to care, providing tailored and quality-driven experiences for each individual.

Radiation Therapy - Creating the Plan for Treatment“The fear of the unknown is the greatest fear of all.” You’ve probably heard this adage at some point in your life, and it’s particularly poignant when you find yourself face-to-face with a prostate cancer diagnosis. But you’re not alone, your treatment team at the Advanced Prostate Cancer Institute is here, dispelling the unknowns of radiation therapy and creating a customized care plan, just for you.

Understanding the Process

For Martin Tompkins, a specialist at the institute, the most rewarding part of his job is educating patients about what to expect while they’re in the treatment room. As Tompkins says, “One of the roles that I enjoy the most is when a patient comes in for a consultation… we sit down in my office and I show them a video of actually what is going on while the patient is on the table being treated.” This understanding is fundamental in easing the fear and concern you might have regarding the procedures.

At their office in Oxford, FL, the Advanced Prostate Cancer Institute recognizes the importance of patient education. “Even though there’s a lot of information given to them on that first day, they will leave with a good explanation and thorough explanation of their options,” Tompkins assures.

Preparing for the Treatment

When you choose radiation therapy for treatment, the next step is a CT simulation. In another room, staff will make a mold for your feet to help immobilize them during the scan. By mapping out the target area, which is the prostate or the prostate bed, they gain an external perspective of where the prostate will be. The team will give you three small tattoos using lasers, creating markers for the radiation.

You’ll then have a week-long break before returning for treatment. During that week, physicians and physicists scrutinize each slice of the scan, identifying areas that would receive radiation, and planning how to minimize exposure to the surrounding organs and tissues.

The Role of Technology in Treatment

Once they identify the necessary doses, the team plugs this data into a treatment planning computer. The computer calculates how to deliver the treatment, minimizing the radiation dose to other organs while ensuring the prostate receives the required level of treatment.

The Advanced Prostate Cancer Institute does not shrink from exploring the potential of technology in treatment. The use of sophisticated equipment to calculate precise doses of radiation is a testament to their commitment to providing the highest quality of care to patients.

Building Trust in Advanced Urology

Finally, using the customized treatment plan, the institute’s team delivers effective radiation therapy. This process essentially transforms anxiety-inducing uncertainty into manageable information, building trust between you and your care team.

Advanced Urology Institute, the largest urology practice in Florida, is committed to this comprehensive and patient-centered approach to care. With an unwavering dedication to patient education and treatment planning, they consistently deliver on the promise of a tailored and quality-driven experience for every person who walks through their doors. No prostate cancer journey is easy, but with the Advanced Prostate Cancer Institute, you can feel confident that you’re in capable hands.

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Transcription:

One of the roles that I enjoy the most is when a patient comes in for a consultation, I get to spend a few minutes with them and showing them the equipment in the room and then also we sit down in my office and I show them a video of actually what is going on while the patient is on the table being treated. 
 
So educating the patient about what to expect, what’s actually going on while they’re in the room is a big thing that I like to do that helps to ease the patient’s concerns and questions that they have and ease, take away some of the fear that they might have about regarding the procedures. 
 
My name is Martin Tompkins, I’m with Advanced Prostate Cancer Institute. Even though there’s a lot of information given to them on that first day, they will leave with a good explanation and thorough explanation of their options. Well if a patient decides to choose radiation therapy, the first step is to have what we call a CT simulation. 
 
The patient will actually go to another room where we have a CT simulator and what will happen at that point is we’ll make a mold for their feet to help immobilize their feet and then also as we do the scan, we’re actually mapping out and identifying the target area whether it’s the prostate or the prostate bed if they’ve had a prostatectomy. 
 
So at that point when we localize the area, the target, the area that we want to treat, we’ll give them three small tattoos using lasers that are mounted on the wall and so when we look at the patient from an exterior perspective, we can see from those tattoos generally where the prostate is going to be. So from that point, the patient will have about a week before they actually come back for treatment. 
 
During that week, the physician and the physicist are going through each slice of the scan and they’re identifying the areas in the pelvis including the prostate and the other organs and tissues around the prostate that would receive radiation. And so what we do then is we map those out or we contour those organs and tissues and then we identify how much or how little dose we want those to receive. 
 
After we do that, we plug that data into the treatment planning computer and the computer figures out how to deliver the treatment, the dose or the amount of treatment that we want to give to the target while shortening or lessening the dose to the other surrounding organs and tissues.

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Advanced Urology Institute

Advanced Urology Institute is the largest urology practice in Florida. We are dedicated to improving the lives of our patients by providing excellent Patient-Centered Care. Set an appointment or visit our closest office near you.

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