A radiation therapist typically works with an oncology department helping treat cancer. Radiation therapy can be highly effective in completely eliminating or reducing tumors in size. This important career is highly technical, requires a very specialized education, and like many other medical careers is deeply rewarding.
What Does a Radiation Therapist Do?
A radiation therapist controls a machine called a linear accelerator, which is used for radiation treatments. The procedure itself is called external beam therapy, and it is basically a way to use X-rays at specific cancer cells. Once the beam hits the cells, it causes ions that have a detrimental effect on the cancer cells. The best-case scenario is that the cancer cells are destroyed completely by this beam--- or at the very least shrunken down. For some cancers, radiation therapy is the only treatment needed. Other, more malignant cancers require a combination therapy that has both radiation therapy and something along the lines of chemotherapy or other cancer treatments.
Education Required
You do not need to go to medical school to become a radiation therapist---you usually just need to have a one- or two-year technical certification. A college degree, though needed if you want to move on to become a radiologist, is not required for a radiation therapist. Many employers do require a certification or license on top of the associate's or tech school degree, however.
Types of Radiation Therapy Jobs
Radiation therapists work alongside radiologists, dosimetrists and oncologists. They are considered the front line, talking to the patient and the rest of the team to keep everyone on track. They explain exactly what is going on to the patient, along with making sure that they are physically and mentally able to go through the treatment.
Salary Expected
The average radiation therapist salary is $66,000. The high-end salary range is around $90,000, while the low end is $40,000. A radiation therapist position does have room for advancement, and the salaries for management positions relating to radiation therapy do have a higher salary on average as well, placing it in the high-end range for the career.
Work Environments
Radiation therapists typically work in three places---a hospital, an outpatient clinic or a physician's office. The outpatient clinic tends to pay the best out of the three, with the average $10,000 higher than the median radiation therapist salary. As radiation therapists do most of the direct patient work, they do need to be able to handle heavy lifting, transferring patients onto beds and gurneys.
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