{"id":2327,"date":"2010-04-06T17:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-06T21:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radonc\/patient\/treatments\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:32:09","slug":"treatments","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radonc\/patient\/treatments\/","title":{"rendered":"Treatment Types"},"content":{"rendered":"

Radiation therapy (radiotherapy) involves the precise medical application of ionizing radiation in order to to destroy cancerous tumors, treat benign conditions, and provide symptom relief for many conditions.<\/p>\n

Radiotherapy comprises nearly a dozen treatment types. Each type of radiotherapy has its own indications, advantages, and disadvantages. Your UNC radiation oncologist will help you choose the treatment that best suits your particular needs.<\/p>\n

External Beam Radiotherapy
\n<\/strong>Using state-of-the-art linear accelerators, X-rays or electrons are focused on tumors while trying to avoid damage to surrounding normal tissues.<\/p>\n

Intensity-Modulated and Image-Guided Radiotherapy
\n<\/strong>External beam radiotherapy allows radiation doses to be delivered to the tumor more accurately, while further minimizing damage to surrounding normal tissues.<\/p>\n

CyberKnife Robotic Radiosurgery
\n<\/strong>External beam radiotherapy allows physicians irradiate small tumors virtually anywhere in the body with the highest level of precision. This is useful because some tumors can\u2019t be removed by traditional surgery without involving significant risks. UNC CyberKnife Center<\/a><\/p>\n

Mobetron Intraoperative Radiotherapy
\n<\/strong>Intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) consists of a large single dose of electrons generated by a portable linear accelerator and delivered during<\/em>\u00a0cancer surgery through the surgical incision. The goal of IORT is to treat the \u201ctumor bed\u201d\u2014the local area where the tumor used to be before it was surgically removed\u2014which could still contain microscopic deposits of cancer.<\/p>\n

Brachytherapy
\n<\/strong>Radioactive capsules, wires, or \u201cseeds\u201d are implanted in and around a tumor, either temporarily or permanently. Brachytherapy is commonly used for gynecologic and genitourinary cancers. The brachytherapy room provides live imaging of the treatment area as the radioactive materials are implanted, allowing procedures to be completed more quickly and accurately.<\/p>\n

Palliative Radiotherapy
\n<\/strong>Patients with symptoms associated with cancer often experience meaningful improvement in quality of life through the delivery of symptom-directed radiotherapy, or palliative radiotherapy. When used with the goal of symptom relief, targeted radiation treatments can be delivered quickly and in a limited number of treatment sessions. Our physicians specialize in partnering with patients to identify their goals and deliver an evidence-based treatment plan that aligns best with each individual patient\u2019s preferences. Palliative radiotherapy is often utilized for painful sites of cancer (such as cancer in the bones) and is a versatile treatment that can improve many symptoms associated with cancer.<\/p>\n

Functional Radiation Medicine<\/b><\/div>\n
Radiotherapy has been shown to be an effective treatment for a variety of noncancerous (benign) conditions. This type of treatment is known as functional radiation medicine. Our radiation oncologists work with specialists across the UNC system to offer radiation therapy for a number of these conditions.\u00a0More information about functional radiation medicine<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Radiation therapy (radiotherapy) involves the precise medical application of ionizing radiation in order to to destroy cancerous tumors, treat benign conditions, and provide symptom relief for many conditions. Radiotherapy comprises nearly a dozen treatment types. Each type of radiotherapy has its own indications, advantages, and disadvantages. Your UNC radiation oncologist will help you choose the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11352,"featured_media":0,"parent":2323,"menu_order":11,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2327","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","odd"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTreatment Types | Department of Radiation Oncology<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/radonc\/patient\/treatments\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Treatment Types | Department of Radiation Oncology\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Radiation therapy (radiotherapy) involves the precise medical application of ionizing radiation in order to to destroy cancerous tumors, treat benign conditions, and provide symptom relief for many conditions. 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