RapidArc is a major advance in radiotherapy technology
December 15th, 2008 Posted in radiation therapyMr McCormack, from Warrington in Cheshire, received the fast and efficient RapidArc therapy at Clatterbridge centre for Oncology in the Wirral, the first UK cancer centre to introduce the revolutionary new technique in prostate cancer treatment.
Researchers suggests that RapidArc is a major advance in radiotherapy technology that will change the way radiotherapy is. With RapidArc, oncologists can target radiation beams at a tumor while making one continuous rotation around the patient. Conventional intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treatments are slower and more difficult for radiotherapy radiographers because they target tumors using a complex sequence of fixed beams from multiple angles.
At the same time, the ‘beam-on’ time is reduced from nearly four minutes with conventional IMRT to just 1 minute 10 seconds with RapidArc
Shortly, doctors at Clatterbridge centre for Oncology intend to start using RapidArc for complex head & neck cancer treatments and they expect the beam-on time will be reduced from 25 minutes using IMRT to about two and a half minutes using two arcs with RapidArc, resulting in more efficient treatments and potentially shortening waiting lists.