As part of a joint venture with Vantage Oncology, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital provides the latest and most innovative radiation therapy treatments in the region. Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital has been a state-designated site for radiation therapy since 1969 and handles approximately 15,000 visits each year to its radiation therapy program.

Radiation therapy is a painless treatment, similar to an x-ray, using high energy x-rays to injure the DNA of cancer cells so that they are unable to grow or to repair themselves. Cancer cell populations often grow at a faster rate than do normal cell populations and this makes many cancers sensitive to radiation. Radiation also affects normal, healthy cells but, unlike cancer cells, these are often able to recover from radiation damage.

Radiation therapy can be used many ways:

• as a treatment on its own
• as a way of shrinking tumors prior to surgery, in order to improve the chances that the surgery will be successful
• after surgery to make sure that all tumor cells are destroyed
• in combination with chemotherapy

New Technologies

Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital employs some of the newest technologies for delivery radiation therapy to cancer cells.

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)

IMRT allows doctors to customize radiation doses by modulating, or varying, the amount of radiation given to different parts of the treatment area. This modulation is done in highly accurate, three-dimensional detail, according to the shape, size, and location of the tumor. IMRT uses a linear accelerator equipped with a multi-leaf collimator to shape the radiation beams and vary their intensity. This allows the radiation to be very precisely targeted to the tumor or area at risk, while minimizing the radiation to normal surrounding organs.

TomoTherapy

Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital was the first hospital in all of New England to offer cancer patients TomoTherapy, the very latest in radiation therapy.

The advantage of TomoTherapy is having a radiation treatment beam projected into the tumor continuously as the beam rotates. In other therapies, a limited number of fixed beams, each providing only a fraction of the dose necessary to irradiate the tumor, are used.

TomoTherapy combines Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) using 3-D imaging from an integrated CT scan with highly targeted radiation beams to precisely pinpoint all tumors and deliver IMRT, continuously from the 360-degree radius. By combining daily CT scans to confirm the size and location of the tumor before each treatment session, radiation oncologists can more precisely treat both large and small tumors located throughout the body. As a result, patients are exposed to less radiation, thereby helping to preserve healthy tissue and decreasing potential side effects.

Meet the Radiation Oncologists

Nicklas B.E. Oldenburg, MD

Dr. Oldenburg graduated with honors from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC in 1989 and received his Medical Degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC in 1995. He completed his Internship at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA in 1996 and his Residency in Radiation Oncology at Harvard Joint Center for Radiation Therapy in Boston, MA in 2000, where he served as Chief Resident. He was a physician at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an instructor at Harvard Medical School from 2000 to 2002. In 2002, he joined Radiation Oncology Associates, a five physician radiation oncology specialty group. Dr. Oldenburg’s areas of expertise include prostate cancer, head and neck cancers, gastrointestinal cancers, and lung cancer. He has extensive experience with transrectal ultrasound-guided (TRUS) prostate implants as well as Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). He is Board Certified by the American Board of Radiology for Radiation Oncology.

Kathy Radie-Keane, MD

Dr. Radie-Keane received her Bachelor of Science degree with honors from Emmanuel College in Boston, MA in 1980 and her Medical Degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA in 1986. She completed her Internship at Salem Hospital in Salem, MA in 1987 and

her Residency in Radiation Oncology at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, MA and the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, VA in 1990 where she served as Chief Resident. She was an Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Virginia and Thomas Jefferson University. She joined Radiation Oncology Associates in Providence in 1995 and was chairman of Radiation Oncology at Roger Williams Medical Center from 1998-2005. Dr. Radie-Keane’s specialty areas of interest include breast, Gyn, lung, lymphomas and head and neck cancers. She has had extensive experience with Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. She is Board Certified by the American Board of Radiology in Radiation Oncology.