Hi Stephany,
we have even more in common - my mother had melanoma on her left upper arm. They took a chunk of flesh that I swear looked just like a sharkbite. She also had breast cancer and had a radical mastectomey. I was very young when all that happened. She passed away suddenly of a myocardial infarction when she was 68. My dad had a bad heart and died of lymphoma - go figure!

IMRT stands for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. It differs from XRT (convetional radiation) in that the actual tumor shape is mapped out in 3D on a computer and a treatment plan is developed in software that attacks just the tumor, sparing as much healthy tissue as possible. XRT on the other hand is more of a shotgun approach. Not all people are candidates for IMRT. The tumor has to be well differentiated (or well defined) for the best outcome. see the site below for a more detailed explanation. http://www.nomos.com/content/2_1_imrtbasics.php?S=2&SS=1
It was originally developed for prostate cancer.