Radiotherapy treatment for bone cancer
Radiotherapy uses high energy x-rays to treat cancer. You don't routinely have radiotherapy for all types of bone cancer. But it can be an important part of treatment for Ewing sarcoma.
This page is about cancer that starts in your bone (primary bone cancer). If your cancer has spread into bone from another part of the body, it is called secondary or metastatic bone cancer.
When you might have it
You don't routinely have radiotherapy for all types of bone cancer. But it can be an important part of treatment for Ewing sarcoma. You may have radiotherapy for:
- Ewing sarcoma
- osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma if surgery is not possible
- bone cancer that has spread or has come back after treatment
- chordoma - sometimes after surgery
- osteosarcoma - occasionally after surgery
Ewing sarcoma
If you have Ewing sarcoma, you might have radiotherapy in the following situations:
If surgery can't completely remove your cancer
It may not be possible to remove your tumour completely if the cancer is in a central area of your body. You might have a combination of surgery and radiotherapy. Or you might have radiotherapy instead of surgery. You usually have radiotherapy alongside chemotherapy.
If Ewing sarcoma spreads to the lungs
After chemotherapy, you might have radiotherapy to both lungs. You have this when the cancer has spread to your lungs. This is sometimes called whole lung radiotherapy or a lung bath. You usually have a low dose of radiotherapy every day over a couple of weeks.
Bone cancer that has spread or come back
You might have radiotherapy for all types of bone cancer that have spread or come back (advanced cancer). It might not be possible to get rid of advanced bone cancer. But radiotherapy and chemotherapy might control the growth of the cancer for a while.
A growing cancer can cause symptoms by pressing on nerves and other body tissues. This can be painful. Radiotherapy can often shrink them which relieves the pressure.
Radiotherapy can also help to strengthen bones weakened by cancer. After the treatment has killed off the cancer cells, the holes in the bone caused by the cancer are repaired. This is done by cells called osteoblasts. These cells make the bone framework in bones.
How you have it
You have external radiotherapy for bone cancer. External radiotherapy destroys cancer cells from outside of the body.
The type of external radiotherapy you have depends on the:
- type of cancer
- its stage
You might have one of the following:
Conformal radiotherapy
Conformal radiotherapy shapes the radiation beams. By doing so, it closely fits the area of cancer. It is also called 3D conformal radiotherapy or 3DCRT. It is a very common type of radiotherapy.
Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT)
You may have intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) to treat primary bone cancer. IMRT shapes the radiotherapy beam to fit the shape of the tumour very accurately. This allows higher doses of radiation to treat the area. The surrounding healthy tissues get less radiation.
Proton beam therapy
You might have a type of radiotherapy called proton beam therapy for Ewing sarcoma or chordoma. This type of radiotherapy uses high energy or low energy proton beams to treat cancer.
