Supporting Prostate Cancer Treatment

The Duke Division of Nuclear Medicine and Radiotheranostics uses radioactive drugs to treat patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Because the patients are radioactive for a few days following treatment, it is important that their family members, friends and other associates are exposed to as little radiation as is reasonably achievable. The Radiation Safety Division supports our clinicians in the following ways:

• Giving instructions to patients on how to minimize radiation exposure to others
• Ensuring that releasing patients to the public following treat complies with state and federal regulations
• Ensuring that radiation exposure levels in the hospital environment during treatments is below regulatory concern
• Assisting technologists in controlling radioactive contamination
• Responding to emergent situations such as spills of radioactive material

See our Patient Care page for more information about the Radiation Safety Division’s contribution to clinical care at Duke.