Radiation therapy uses high-energy beams, most often from a linear accelerator, to damage and destroy cancer cells while limiting the dose reaching healthy tissue nearby. It can cure some cancers on its own or work alongside surgery and chemotherapy, and is planned individually from a person's scans.
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Next: which technique fits your diagnosis, and how urgent it really is
Tap what the biopsy or the doctor said. We'll show you the radiation technique that is usually right, how urgent it truly is, how many sessions, and what it costs — before you speak to anyone.
Then: sessions, dose, and what it actually costs
Pick the technique and the number of sessions for an instant indicative range. Your exact, itemised figure comes back within 1 hour of a radiation oncologist seeing the reports.
Typical for IMRT / VMAT: 20–33 sessions, weekdays only — about 6.6 weeks of treatment.
What this dose actually means
BED (biologically effective dose) is how oncologists compare short intense courses with long gentle ones. A tumour BED₁₀ above roughly 100 is considered ablative — which is why five SBRT sessions can equal eight weeks of daily treatment. Late-tissue BED₃ here is 110, and that is the number that decides long-term side effects.
Indicative ranges only. Final cost depends on the technique, number of fractions, whether concurrent chemotherapy or immunotherapy is given, brachytherapy insertions, and any hospital admission. We send a written itemised estimate before you travel and flag anything that could change it.
Indicative published averages for a full 25–33 fraction image-guided IMRT course including planning and simulation.
Four questions. No sign-up, no phone number.
Curious what your specific side effects will be? Tap the body
The same dose feels completely different depending on what sits next to the tumour. Tap a region to see what is treated there, what to expect, and exactly how it is protected.
Treated here
Lung cancer, oesophagus, thymoma, mediastinal lymphoma
What to expect
Cough, mild breathlessness, painful swallowing, tiredness
How it is protected
4D-CT planning, respiratory gating or breath-hold, strict heart and lung dose limits
Most radiation courses can be planned calmly over two or three weeks. These five cannot — if any of them is happening now, get imaging today and send it to us in parallel.
Suspected spinal cord compression. Steroids and a whole-spine MRI today — radiation within 24 hours preserves walking.
Superior vena cava obstruction. Urgent imaging and radiation or a stent within days.
Raised pressure inside the skull. Needs steroids now and radiation planning the same week.
Haemostatic radiation can stop bleeding within days. This should not wait for a routine appointment slot.
A single radiation fraction relieves 60–80% of these. Waiting weeks for it is a failure of coordination, not a medical necessity.
Families brace for the worst on day one and are then blindsided in week four. Drag the timeline for the honest version, week by week.
A CT simulation with your mask or cast made, tattoos or stickers marked, and 24–72 hours for the physicist to build and quality-check the plan. Nothing hurts. Most patients are surprised at how ordinary it feels.
From the first WhatsApp message to the one-year surveillance scan.
Upload the histopathology report, the PET-CT or MRI (DICOM, CD or clear photos of the films), and a short note on treatment so far — surgery, chemotherapy, current medicines.
A senior radiation oncologist tells you whether radiation is indicated at all, the intent (cure, control or comfort), the technique, and the number of sessions — in plain language.
Head-neck, cervix, lung, rectum and paediatric cases are discussed with a surgical oncologist, medical oncologist, radiologist and pathologist before anyone starts treatment.
Itemised all-inclusive estimate for the whole course plus a hospital invitation letter for the medical visa, usually issued in 2–4 hours, covering patient and attendants together.
Airport pickup, oncologist consultation, mask or cast moulded, planning CT (with PET fusion where needed), dental and nutrition review for head-neck patients.
Dosimetrists build the plan, the oncologist approves the contours, and the physicist runs a patient-specific QA measurement on the machine before a single beam is delivered to you.
Weekdays only, a few minutes each, same slot every day. Weekly on-treatment review checks weight, blood counts, skin and symptoms. Your family is updated after each review.
A full dose summary, plan images and side-effect care chart in your language, plus a written plan for what happens next — chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or just surveillance.
Response scan at 3 months reviewed by the same oncologist on WhatsApp, and every surveillance scan after that. Follow-up never costs you anything with us.
These are typical figures from high-volume partner centres delivering 250+ radiation courses a month on modern linear accelerators with daily image guidance. Radiation outcomes depend far more on the cancer type, stage and how well the plan is made than on the brand of machine — we will tell you where your case sits, including when the honest answer is that radiation adds nothing.
Skin, mouth and bowel reactions are usually worst 7–10 days after the final fraction, then improve over 2–4 weeks. This is normal healing, not failure of treatment.
Radiation tiredness can persist 4–8 weeks after the course. Short walks help more than bed rest. We send a written expectation chart so nobody assumes the worst.
Plain moisturiser twice daily, loose cotton, no perfumed soap, no sun on the treated area for a year. Darkening fades slowly; the area stays sun-sensitive for life.
Dryness, stiffness, lymphoedema or bowel sensitivity can appear months later. Reported early they are treatable — which is why our follow-up is free and permanent.
No forms, no payment, no obligation. A senior radiation oncologist reads the biopsy and the scans and tells you whether radiation is needed, which technique, how many sessions, and what it costs.
We reply on WhatsApp within 4 hours. Your reports are never shared with anyone else.
A radiation course means weeks in one city, not a single operation. We plan the paperwork, accommodation and attendant stay around the full schedule so nothing interrupts treatment once it starts.
"They said 33 sessions at home. The oncologist here reviewed the reports and did it in 16 with breath-hold. Same result, half the time, and my heart was kept out of the beam."
"My father could barely stand from the bone pain. One session of radiation and within a week he was walking to the mosque again. We had waited three months for that."
"Five sessions for the prostate instead of eight weeks. The spacer gel meant almost no bowel problems, and the final bill was exactly what the estimate said."
Radiation therapy uses precisely shaped X-ray, gamma or proton beams to break the DNA inside cancer cells so they cannot divide again. Healthy tissue repairs that damage overnight; tumour cells largely cannot — that single biological difference is the whole basis of treatment, and it is why the dose is split into daily fractions. Nothing is cut, nothing is felt: a session lasts a few minutes, you lie still on a couch, the machine rotates around you and you go home or back to the hotel afterwards. You are not radioactive and you are safe around children, except for a few days after certain internal brachytherapy or radio-iodine treatments. Modern planning software shapes the beam to the tumour in three dimensions, spares the spinal cord, heart, salivary glands and bowel by millimetres, and verifies your position with a scan before every single session. Roughly half of all cancers cured worldwide involve radiotherapy — often instead of surgery, not after it.
No forms, no payment, no obligation. A senior radiation oncologist reads the biopsy and the scans and tells you whether radiation is needed, which technique, how many sessions, and what it costs.
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