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With better cancer medications available, is a career in radiation therapy a good career to get into or is it slowing down?

I am starting college in the fall for pre-radiation therapy. Getting into a radiation therapy program is very difficult as they only take 7 student. So, I know that they are not graduating many therapists per year. Also, there are only 2 universities in my state that even offer the program. #medicine #healthcare #therapy #oncology #cancer #radiation #cancer-research

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Jennifer’s Answer

Radiation therapy for cancer continues to grow as an industry and as technical advances occur - such as, being able to specifically target smaller areas for radiation treatment without damaging surrounding tissues and structures and being able to target ‘moving’ targets like lesions within the lungs. Keep in mind, all types of cancers react (or do not react) to various therapies - chemo, radiation, etc. And some patients are not ‘surgical candidates’ meaning their type of cancer either cannot be safely removed or they are not healthy enough to have surgery. So treating cancer then goes to chemo or radiation therapy.
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Misty’s Answer

There is most definitely always going to be a need for cancer related treatment until they find a cure so I would say that this is a good field to get into, however I would suggest a secondary medical concentration just as a backup. Alot of the premed classes do overlap and coincide with one another so I would definitely look into this as well. There are few areas that offer the radiation therapy as it is costly for patients however not so much a dying field. Just a few things to think about.

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Brock’s Answer

Pursuing a career in radiation therapy is an enriching opportunity. I have been a radiation therapist for seven years, and I love my job more every day. There is no doubt that getting into a radiation therapy program can be very challenging. When I applied to the radiation therapy program at the Community College of Baltimore County in 2015, I competed against 200 other applicants. Out of the 200 applicants, 180 were interviewed, and only 15 were accepted. To increase your chances of getting accepted, make sure you strive to get straight A’s. Radiation therapy programs tend to take fewer students because they do not want to oversaturate the workforce. Depending on their size, hospitals hire approximately 15 to 20 radiation therapists per radiation oncology department. However, now is a great time to get into radiation therapy because many “Baby Boomer” radiation therapists are starting to retire. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the projected job outlook for radiation therapy is expected to grow by approximately nine percent from 2020 to 2030, which is the average for all occupations.

BLS Website: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/radiation-therapists.htm#tab-6
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Aaron’s Answer

This is a multilayered question. Cancer can be treated in several ways. Medical Oncology is the field where doctors treat cancer patients with chemotherapy drugs and another therapy called stem cell treatment is where cancer cells are targeted with genetic warfare through deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). Radiation Therapy has both internal and external beam radiation. Additionally, Radiation can be used from a radioactive source that is always decaying or emitting radiation until depleted. Radioactivity is measured in half lives. Those used internally for radiation therapy have relatives short half lives. However, gamma knife is a radiation treatment that uses Cobalt-60 as a radioactive source to treat brain tumors with precision. Most radiation therapy departments use linear accelerators to generate ionizing radiation from x-rays with high voltage electricity for external beam treatments. In some cases, cancer can be removed with a surgical procedure. Depending on your interest, radiation therapy has multiple disciplines within the field. Radiation therapists treat the cancer patients. Dosimetrists plan the radiation treatment with the Radiation Oncologist. Medical Physicists review the treatment plans and make sure the doses are correct and safe to administer. The Radiation Oncologist and Nursing staff will address any medical issues that threaten safe treatment and manage radiation side effects. Radiation therapy science is advancing daily and will be an integral part of cancer care for years to come.

Aaron recommends the following next steps:

I suggest you contact an institution with a Radiation Therapy department and ask if there is an internship program or if you could shadow the staff for a day. This answers a lot of questions even before beginning a program
Visit the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) online @ www.arrt.org. There is information on how to become a Radiation Therapist RT(T) and many others disciplines.
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