An MD for more than 30 years, Dr. Rajiv “Raj” Dahiya serves as a radiation oncologist at Premier Cancer Centers in Dallas, TX. There, Dr. Rajiv “Raj” Dahiya uses innovative treatment technologies to address prostate and other cancers.
For patients with prostate cancer, radiation therapy can be an effective first-line treatment as well as an intervention for recurrent or advanced cancers. One option is external beam radiation therapy, or EBRT, which delivers therapeutic radiation to the tumor from outside the body. Most contemporary forms of EBRT involve image-guided radiation delivery that creates the shape of the radiation beam so as to minimize exposure of nearby tissues.
EBRT may be an element of a potentially curative treatment plan for patients with early stage cancers, though it is also used as a symptom mitigation measure for patients whose cancer has spread. Another option for treating early-stage prostate cancer is brachytherapy, also known as interstitial or internal radiation therapy. This methodology involves placing inside the prostate a series of small radioactive structures, each the size of a grain of rice.
Most such interventions fall into a category known as permanent or low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy, in which the implanted pellets continually emit small doses of radiation and then remain safely in the prostate after treatment is complete. Other patients receive what is known as temporary or high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy, which delivers increased levels of radiation through implanted catheters, with the catheters being removed after the therapy is complete.
High dose rate brachytherapy is often used in combination with EBRT, particularly for those patients who are at risk of the cancer spreading. Brachytherapy may also be used alone, though this is more common in patients with slow-growing cancers.
