Radiation Treatment Hampered By Normal Movements Of The Cervix
Women diagnosed with cervical cancer usually receive some form of radiation therapy to attack the tumor cells in the cervix and to prevent cancer from spreading to other organs. Ideally, a physician wants to use as much radiation as possible to kill the cancer cells, but not affect the healthy surrounding tissue or organs.
A recent report from oncology experts at the UC San Diego School of Medicine indicates that consistently hitting the targeted tumors in the cervix throughout multiple radiation therapy sessions may be more difficult than once believed. It appears that small, normal day-to-day movements of the cervix can add up to big differences in the accuracy and effectiveness of radiation treatments.
The study looked at a series of more than 500 cervical images from 10 patients with cervical cancer during 2007 to 2008. For the study, each patient had two small gold “seeds” implanted into their cervix to serve as easy-to-identify location markers during the radiation therapy and imaging.
The researchers found that the cervix could move anywhere from two to 20 millimeters, depending on the woman, between the first and last therapy sessions.
