Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, affiliated with the UofL School of Medicine, through a partnership with Norton Cancer Institute Radiation Center, has a specially designed wing for pediatric radiation therapy. This center has the latest in technology, support for the entire family and staff specially trained to provide radiation therapy to children of all ages and sizes.

This special wing incorporates a kid-friendly theme and has a pediatric radiation oncologist, a physician who specializes in radiation therapy while understanding the special needs of a child’s body. Our pediatric radiation team is focused on providing effective radiation therapy while keeping the amount of radiation each child gets to the lowest dose possible.

It is important to manage emotional and physical discomfort while eliminating cancer for each of our patients. During pediatric radiation therapy, a pediatric anesthesia team from Norton Children’s Hospital is available for children who need sedation during their radiation therapy sessions.

Our state-of-the-art pediatric radiation center features:

• Ability to customize radiation doses to limit the amount of radiation needed based on the child’s size
• High-dose radiation (HDR) brachytherapy – Highly localized radiation that is administered internally to tumors while minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissue and reducing side effects
• Calypso external beam radiation – Targeted external beam radiation therapy for all soft tissue tumors
• Stereotactic radiosurgery – A nonsurgical radiation therapy used to deliver precisely targeted radiation, providing treatment in less doses than traditional radiation therapy

Radiation Therapy Trials

As a part of the Children’s Oncology Group, our pediatric radiation therapy program has access to a variety of radiation therapy trials, including a currently active study on rhabdomyosarcoma on which Aaron C. Spalding, M.D., Ph.D., is a co-investigator.