Mississippi Administrative Code
Title 15 - Mississippi Department of Health
Part 8 - Office of Health Policy and Planning
Subpart 90 - Planning and Resource Development
Chapter 05 - Acute Care Facilities and Services Overview
Section 15-8-90-05-506 - Therapeutic Radiation Services

Therapeutic radiology (also called radiation oncology, megavoltage radiotherapy, or radiation therapy) is the treatment of cancer and other diseases with radiation. Radiation therapy uses high energy photons (x-ray or gamma rays) or charged particles (electrons, protons, or heavy nuclei) to damage critical biological molecules in tumor cells. Radiation in various forms is used to kill cancer cells by preventing them from multiplying. Therapeutic radiation may be used to cure or control cancer, or to alleviate some of the symptoms associated with cancer (palliative care). Radiation therapy services does not include low energy, superficial, external beam x-ray treatment of superficial skin lesions.

In radiation therapy, a non-invasive treatment can be given repetitively over several weeks to months and can be aimed specifically at the area where treatment is needed, minimizing side effects for uninvolved normal tissues. This repetitive treatment is called fractionation because a small fraction of the total dose is given each treatment. Radiotherapy can only be performed with linear accelerator (linac) technology. Conventionally administrated external beam radiation therapy gives a uniform dose of radiation to the entire region of the body affected by the tumor. Only a small variation of the dose is delivered to various parts of the tumor. Radiotherapy may not be as effective as stereotactic radiosurgery, which can give higher doses of radiation to the tumor itself.

Another type of radiation therapy used in Mississippi is brachytherapy. Unlike the external beam therapy, in which high-energy beams are generated by a machine and directed at a tumor from outside the body, brachytherapy involves placing a radioactive material directly into the body.