Radiotherapy treatments have evolved a lot in recent years. Today, technology has allowed us to evolve towards radiotherapy that greatly reduces side effects, offers high cure rates and a better quality of life for patients.
In the case of breast cancer, three different types of radiotherapy are used. The first and most common is intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), whose characteristics make the healthy tissues adjacent to the area to be treated more protected. The second method is brachytherapy, which allows radiotherapy to be applied directly to the tumor cells. This treatment is carried out by means of catheters inserted under the skin and allows the tumor to be attacked directly. The third type of radiotherapy is partial breast irradiation, indicated only for tumors that have been diagnosed early. It allows them to be treated in a less aggressive way and provides very good aesthetic results and, more importantly, a good quality of life. This type of radiotherapy is not universal, but is aimed at patients over 50 years of age, with tumors of less than 2 centimeters, without positive lymph nodes, with a not excessively large breast and who have not undergone chemotherapy techniques.
Radiotherapy in prostate cancer
In addition to treating breast cancer, the IMOR Institute studies other types of cancer. While the most frequent in women is breast cancer, in men it is usually prostate cancer. In the latter case, we apply moderate intensity radio and branchytherapy, with which we obtain a 98% cure rate without side effects such as urinary incontinence or erectile dysfunctions. However, we also apply radiotherapy in cases of colon and rectal cancer, gynecological tumors, lung cancer, intracerebral tumors, among others.
Looking to the future, our intention is to continue to invest in the latest technological innovations and make them available to our patients, as we have done since IMO opened its doors in 2000. We will also continue to collaborate with the creation of a culture of cancer prevention. In the case of breast cancer, early detection of a tumor allows us to obtain a higher success rate with radiotherapy, so we should not let our guard down.