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Helical tomotherapy in the community setting: a personal account
Departments of Human Oncology and Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, Madison, WI
Helical tomotherapy is a unique modality of image-guided intensity (IMRT) modulated radiation therapy that was conceived by investigators at the University of Wisconsin. It can be thought of as a hybrid between a linear accelerator (linac) and a helical CT unit. As such, it has intrinsic capabilities of image guidance through its megavoltage CT component. The miniaturized 6 mV linac is mounted on a slip-ring gantry allowing continuous 360-degree rotation while the patient is translated through the bore, thereby providing a helical radiationdelivery pattern. The unit is designed to administer IMRT, and this continuous helical radiation-delivery method appears well suited for generating highly conformal, complicated radiation dose distributions. Although initially created and tested in a large academic institution, helical tomotherapy demonstrated impressive versatility early on, and swiftly became a valuable new cancer-fighting technology in community oncology.
| Commun Oncol 2009;6:463–467 | full text |  137 kb |