Southeast Treatment Center's staff includes board-certified radiation oncologists, M.D. Anderson–affiliated physicists and technicians.

Recent advances in technology allow SETC staff to deliver targeted beams to tumors precisely while restricting the dose to surrounding healthy tissues and organs. Powerful linear accelerators are aided by planning systems, computers, and beam modifiers.

Brain and body stereotatic radiosurgery improves cancer treatment near delicate structures of the body such as the brain. This allows delivery of precisely guided beams of radiation from many angles converging on the tumor.

Inensely modulated radiation therapy, the most advanced conformal therapy method, combines 3D imaging with the ability to conform radiation beams and deliver higher radiation doses to tumors. In addition to better controlling the cancer, IMRT is more controlled, allowing safer treatment near delicate organs and minimizing side effects.

Brachytherapy escalates radiation dosage but spares normal tissues. Unlike external beam radiotherapy, in which radition must pass through normal tissue to reach the tumor, brachytherapy uses radioactive “seeds” or wires placed in or near tumors to emit radiation outward.

Brachytherapy seeds can reduce treatment time for prostate and breast cancers. High dose rate brachytherapy uses a removable source delivered in minutes, lowering treatment costs, radiation exposure for both patients and their families, and possible risks associated with hospital stays.