MERRILLVILLE | When a person is diagnosed with cancer, fighting for their life is battle enough. But defending the body against the impact of the chemotherapy and radiation is also a struggle.

For many patients at the Cancer Treatment Group in Merrillville, reducing and even eliminating the contact of radioactive waves with healthy, normal tissues of the body is a way to win the battle against cancer.

Dr. Robert Woodburn, a radiation oncologist, grew up in Merrillville and studied medicine at Indiana University, where he learned about this new technology to target only the cancerous cells, the tumor itself. He returned home and brought the technology with him.

"It's called stereotactic body radiosurgery and it is a technology based on many high-powered beams aimed all at one point in space -- the tumor," said Woodburn.

Even though the word "surgery" is in the technology's name, there is no surgery at all.

"The tumor receives a high amount of radiation, while areas around it don't. So it has a high eradication rate. Because it's so accurate, within a couple of millimeters, we don't see any real side effects," Woodburn said.

The procedure, which Woodburn said is covered by Medicare and most insurances, requires no hospitalization, is completely non-invasive and is a three-day curative treatment. Woodburn says the treatment especially benefits those who before were forced to suffer.

"It can be used on many areas of the body, but primarily lungs and liver tumors, and also some bone tumors and adrenal glands. The most remarkable people to benefit are that patients with stage one lung cancer. (People) that may have too many other health problems and can't tolerate a surgery. They weren't curable before this technology," Woodburn said.

The number of treatments using stereotactic body radiosurgery is also much less than other forms of cancer treatment. Standard radiotherapy often treats a large amount of normal tissue, and the small doses each day help that tissue tolerate the treatment.

Because stereotactic body radiosurgery spares normal tissue, large doses can be given in a relatively short amount of time.

According to Woodburn, The Oncology Institute of The Methodist Hospitals is the only hospital in the area to offer this technology.

"We were the first in the area to have this technology and the reason why is because I trained at Indiana University where the technology was being pioneered. So I brought it to the area four years ago when Methodist Hospitals purchased it. Now some academic hospitals in Chicago are getting it," he said.

Woodburn said that many in the area are benefiting from the technology.

"We use it often, probably about once a week. It's not for everybody, but the cure rates seem to be about the same as surgery," he said.

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For more information, visit www.cancertreatmentgroup.com.