Radiation Oncology

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The Section of Radiation Oncology provides treatment of malignant diseases by radiation for children and adults. Services include treatment of known or suspected malignant disease and radioactive isotopes for interstitial and intracavity therapy, Full spectrum of brachytherapy is also provided.

Medical physics is a specialized branch of radiology dealing with application of radiation medical physics to various sections of Radiology: therapeutic, diagnostic and nuclear. The Medical Physicists have either a Masters or Ph.D. degree and are certified or eligible for certification by the American Board of Radiology. The responsibilities of the physicists are as follows:

1.To provide clinical physics services to the therapeutic radiologist for uniform and accurate delivery of radiation dose to the tumor volume in patients treated for cancer, by external radiation (teletherapy) or by internal radiation (brachytherapy) technique. This requires meticulous treatment planning using computers and other physics measurements.

2.To check quality assurance and calibration of the radiation producing machines on a periodic basis in order to assure consistency of performance.

3.To set up guidelines for radiation safety of personnel in the Guthrie Healthcare System and the Donald Guthrie Foundation for Education & Research. This consists of performing radiation protection surveys, setting up personnel monitoring programs, and providing in-service education and training to the health care staff.

4.To set up radiation safety standards in compliance with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Health and New York State Department of Health Radiation Protection Agencies.

5.To check for quality assurance and calibration of the nuclear medicine and radiological imaging equipment.