TomoTherapy is a maximum precise impact on the tumor and maximum protection of healthy tissues.
In situations where other radiation therapy machines are powerless, the TomoTherapy® HD reaches the established target with the minimum level of exposure of the patient’s healthy organs and tissues. We destroy cancer cells with maximum precision not allowing them to multiply. And we take care of the patient’s life quality.
Here are but a few of the TomoTherapy capabilities:
- The machine will do a quick CT scan before each treatment starts, to ensure the patient is correctly aligned and the right mode is set.
- The main difference from the classical linear accelerators lies in the continuous spiral dose delivery. The dynamically changing fan beam continuously rotates around the patient while the couch moves through the machine’s stationary ring part. As a result, thousands of elementary beams enter the body on the exactly calculated trajectory and intersect at the tumor’s location.
- The TomoTherapy is the only system capable of treating multiple targets in a single session. It can be used to treat large and small, single and multiple tumors in one or several areas, delivering to each target the radiation doses prescribed by the doctor.
- The TomoTherapy allows for protection of the organs located inside the targets, or enveloping them – the salivary glands in the throat tumor, the spinal cord when irradiating the spinal bone, or miss the kidneys and treat the pancreas.
Classical radiotherapy with Elekta Synergy® linear accelerator
The Elekta Synergy system was the first which gave the opportunity to use the 3-dimensional images when conducting daily fractions. The 3D image enables the clinicians to visualize the tumor, the normal healthy organs and tissues surrounding the tumor as well as their movement between and during fractions.
Thus, the Elekta Synergy® has resolved two basic problems of the modern radiotherapy: motion of internal organs during a fraction and patient setup errors. These possibilities are enhanced to this day.
TomoTherapy® HD or Elekta Synergy®?
The reply to the question “What radiotherapy equipment should be used for a session of radiation therapy” falls within the sole competence of the attending physician.
In addition to individual characteristics of disease progression, the doctor will adhere to the protocols and recommendations of the European associations of oncologists and radiologists. Thus, the European colleagues recommend to use the Elekta Synergy® for irradiation of the simple mammary gland without disorders of lymph nodes, of prostate, rectums, from 1 to 3 lung metastases, in palliative bone metastases.
As to the TomoTherapy® HD, it is recommended to use it for the total irradiation of the bone marrow, in multiple lung metastases, in case of a complex mammary gland, for the total irradiation of the lymph nodes and irradiation of brain metastases. These are only few examples of localizations and stages of diseases.
It is important to know that by investing into the staff training and better equipment, we have created a tremendous potential which will enable the Ukrainian Center of TomoTherapy to become one of the best radiotherapy centers of the Eastern Europe.
