Radiation Therapy for Melanoma

Radiation therapy, also called radiotherapy, directs high-energy radiation at the cancer cells to kill them or to keep them from growing. Your melanoma treatment plan may include radiation therapy for various reasons which may include:

• To improve response immunotherapy
• Treating a specific small site that is not responding to other treatments
• Management of brain metastases if your melanoma has spread to the brain
• Palliative care to ease pain and other symptoms from advanced tumors
• After surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells left behind

Types of radiation therapy for melanoma

Typically, radiation therapy for melanoma involves:

• External Beam Radiation Therapy. A large machine called a Linac accelerator generates the radiation, and imaging such as CT, MRI or PET, guide the beams to the precise location to target the tumor, surgical field, specific lymph nodes or other affected areas.
  
  Roswell Park offers several variations of external beam radiation therapy to helps to customize the radiation treatment specifically for your cancer, such as:
  • 3D Conformal Radiation Therapy (3D CRT)
  • Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)
  • Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT)
     
• Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery. This highly specialized type of radiation therapy targets cancerous lesions in the brain. If your melanoma has spread the brain, your care team will evaluate whether this treatment can help you. Gamma Knife treatment delivers high dose radiation to small, critically located targets in the head, without incisions and need for general anesthesia.