RIO DE JANEIRO, July 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Advances in
radiotherapy for the treatment of cancer were among the many topics
discussed during four days of scientific presentations at the
Thirteenth Annual Congress of the Brazilian Society of Radiotherapy
(SBRT), held in Rio de Janeiro last month. The Congress,
attended by 900 clinical professionals from across Latin America,
featured distinguished experts from around the world who discussed
the use of advanced forms of radiotherapy in the treatment of
breast, prostate, colon, brain, gynecological, and head and neck
cancer.
“Radiotherapy is more useful and effective today than at any
other time in history, thanks mostly to important developments in
technology,” said Dr. Carlos Manoel Mendonca de Araujo, President
of the Brazilian Society of Radiotherapy (SBRT) and Director of the
Radiation Oncology Department of the National Cancer Institute
(INCA) in Rio de Janeiro. “The government of Brazil has
recognized the importance of modern radiotherapy in the fight
against cancer, by acquiring new equipment for the public hospitals
and by raising reimbursement rates for this type of treatment. We
are very likely to see, in coming years, a significant upgrade of
the radiotherapy resources at treatment centers across Brazil and
Latin America.”
Radiotherapy is the carefully planned therapeutic use of
high-energy X-ray beams that are able to kill fast-growing cancer
cells. The most modern form of radiotherapy uses special
beam-shaping technology to focus the beam on a targeted tumor while
minimizing exposure of surrounding healthy tissues. This type
of radiotherapy, called “intensity-modulated radiation therapy”
(IMRT) is being adopted by many of Brazil’s cancer clinics.
Sometimes IMRT treatments are guided using real-time imaging
to further enhance treatment precision by accounting for changes in
the tumor and surrounding anatomy over a course of treatment, which
often requires up
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