Radiation Surgery

[Anchor Lead]

Have you ever heard of radiation surgery? It's a cutting edge cancer treatment that involves shooting radiation directly into affected cells much like conducting surgery. The method is said to be effective in the treatment of various forms of cancer.

[Pkg]

This patient, afflicted with pharynx cancer, is receiving radiation treatment. High tech radiation equipment shoots rays from 360 degrees, precisely targeting only the cancer cells. With no particular surgery, the cancer cells in the patient's pharynx were removed in a month.

[Soundbite] Hyeon Seok-joo(Pharynx cancer patient) : "I was frightened of undergoing a surgical operation. The doctor recommended radiation treatment, citing its effectiveness."

With only the cancerous cells being exposed to radiation, this treatment is increasingly replacing surgical procedures.

[Soundbite] Prof. Lee Ik-jae(Gangnam Severance Hospital) : "The radiation amount is adjusted with high precision as decrease in lesions is confirmed along the way. The treatment has effects equal to surgery."

The location of the tumor is tracked in real time through MRI. The device also traces the tumor's minute movements that arise from the patient's breathing, and discharges radiation accordingly. The greatest merit is that there are far fewer side effects, since normal body tissue is not affected.

[Soundbite] Prof. Wu Hong-Gyun(Seoul Nat'l Univ. College of Medicine) : "This equipment allows doctors to view the treatment as it proceeds. It exactly targets the tumor, or cancer, thereby sharply reducing effects on surrounding tissue."

Radiation treatment is expanding its scope of applications to include head and neck cancer, prostate cancer and early stage lung cancer.