An overview of our treatment centers follows with links to more comprehensive information at our sites of care.

Radiation Oncology

The goal of radiation treatment (also called radiotherapy) for cancer patients is to destroy tumor cells independently of surgical tumor removal or of chemotherapy. Radiation works by damaging cells during the cell reproductive phase. Radiation therapy can be used many ways: as a treatment by itself; as a way of shrinking tumors prior to surgery, in order to improve the chances of surgical cure; after surgery to make sure that all tumor cells were destroyed; or in combination with drug therapy.

The Radiation Oncology department provides specialty services in total body irradiation as part of bone marrow transplantation; prostate brachytherapy; High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy; CT based simulation and treatment planning ; and stereotactic radiotherapy for brain tumors.

These services include state-of-the-art technologies such as including IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy), which can be used to treat some patients with brain tumors without harming the surrounding tissues. The Northeast Proton Therapy Center at Massachusetts General Hospital has one of the only two hospital-based proton therapy centers in the United States. This therapy is more than 95 percent successful in treating certain skull-based and eye tumors and can be applied to brain and spinal cancers, prostate and rectal cancers, gastrointestinal and some lung cancers.

Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center