Radiation Therapy for Skin Cancer

External Beam Radiation Therapy for Skin Cancer

• External beam radiation therapy involves a series of outpatient treatments to accurately deliver radiation therapy to the cancer, or the area from which the surgeon previously remove the tumor, and/or to the draining lymph nodes. The radiation will only be directed to the specific area of concern. 
• Treatments are usually given every day, Monday through Friday, and may take anywhere between one and six weeks, depending on how large the cancer is and where it is located. Each treatment itself only takes a few minutes, but it may take half an hour to park, get checked in and set up on the treatment machine.
• Before starting radiation, you will undergo a radiation “planning” session where the radiation treatment team creates a way to set your treatments up accurately on a day-to-day basis. This may require imaging in the treatment position, typically with a CT scan. The radiation oncologist then works with his or her treatment team to “prescribe” the radiation treatment.
• Tailoring each of the radiation beams allows doctors to target more of the cancer cells while sparing nearby organs.
• Skin cancer is often treated with superficial forms of radiation therapy. That means the radiation penetrates only a short distance below the surface, giving more radiation to the skin cancer while keeping it away from underlying organs.
• More about external beam radiation therapy.