Oncology is the branch of medicine that researches, identifies and treats cancer. A physician who works in the field of oncology is an oncologist.
Oncologists must first diagnose a cancer, which is usually carried out via biopsy, endoscopy, X-ray, CT scanning, MRI, PET scanning, ultrasound or other radiological methods.
Nuclear medicine can also be used to diagnose cancer, as can blood tests or tumor markers. Oncology is often linked with hematology, which is the branch of medicine that deals with blood and blood-related disorders.
The radiotherapy team plans your external beam radiotherapy before you start treatment. This means working out the dose of radiotherapy you need and exactly where you need it. Your planning appointment takes from 15 minutes to 2 hours.
You usually have a planning CT scan in the radiotherapy department.
The scan shows the cancer and the area around it. You might have had other types of scans or x-rays before this appointment to help diagnose or stage your cancer. Your treatment team might also use these scans to plan your radiotherapy. The plan they create is just for you.
To plan the treatment your doctor thinks about:
your type of cancer
the position of the cancer in your body
the size of the cancer
whether the cancer is close to structures in your body that are sensitive to radiation
how far the radiation needs to travel into your body
your general health and medical history
Before your planning starts, your nurse or radiographer asks you to sign a consent form. If you're a woman they check with you that you’re not pregnant and remind you not to get pregnant during treatment. This is because radiation can damage an unborn baby. Very occasionally it can be possible to have radiotherapy if you’re pregnant. But this depends on where you’re having treatment to.
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