Radiation Oncology

The radiation practice at Gettysburg Cancer Center was established in 2006. Prior to this, patients needing radiation therapy had to travel extensive distances to receive treatment.

Our radiation department includes Andrew J. Young, M.D., as the Medical Director and Clinical Radiation Oncologist, with faculty and Medical Director experience at Dartmouth and The University of Michigan; as well as a team of radiation therapists who have experience in multiple academic settings including extensive experience in diagnostic imaging.

Our radiation oncology team not only delivers technically accurate treatment but provides evidence based and compassionate care for every patient, working closely with multidisciplinary teams of other Oncologic sub-specialists both within the local region as well as larger academic tertiary centers.

Our Services

Gettysburg Radiation Oncology Radiation services include intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and 3D conformal and image guided treatment delivery, all performed with state of the art radiation treatment planning software called Pinnacle.

After consultations with Dr. Young, patients needing radiotherapy will have a treatment planning scan on our Siemens Biograph Horizon CT scanner, or our Siemens Aera MRI. Since every case is different and every patient has their own treatment needs, these scans are used to create a custom, individualized plan to provide the best care possible. After the planning process is complete and reviewed by our physicians the plans are subjected to an extra layer of quality assurance methodology from the AAPM, the leading organization of medical physicists in the United States. Once the plan has been thoroughly reviewed and verified, patients will receive a series of painless treatments on our Elekta Synergy accelerator, a device that uses a high energy beam to eradicate cancer cells inside the human body.

Software

As radiation oncology quickly evolves it is important that we have the most updated and effective software to treat cancer in our patients. We acquired the latest version of the Pinnacle treatment planning software. This system allows for biologic modeling of specific tumors as well as arguably the best optimization of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) planning in Radiation Oncology. Its full array of features include helpful tools to further enhance the planning of highly detailed clinical target volumes as well as normal organs. The software is beneficial to the patient because it provides the physician as well the treatment planning engineers with an enhanced ability to reduce radiation dose to normal organs and target the cancer more effectively. Being able to do this protects the patient’s healthy organs while radiating the cancerous areas.

Cancer Treatment

• Head and Neck Cancers
• Lung Cancers
• CNS- Primary brain tumors as well metastatic cancer to the brain
• Breast Cancer
• Prostate Cancer
• Esophageal Cancer
• Gastric (Stomach Cancer)
• Pancreatic Cancer
• Colorectal Cancer
• Bladder Cancer
• Gynecologic Cancers
• Sarcomas
• Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas
• Palliative Care- Pain relief from bone metastasis
• Skin Cancer