Improved IMRT

IMRT means Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. It is a relatively new technique used to treat treatment volumes of irregular shapes containing concavities. High dose areas can be bent around sensitive structures next to or near the cancer. As an example, this allows the physician to limit the dose away from the bladder and rectum when treating the prostate for cancer, or avoid a high dose to the optic nerves or the parotid glands when treating brain or head and neck cancers.

Older forms of IMRT, still widely utilized, required that computer software control the many movements of multiple heavy panels into and out of the field while the patient was on the treatment couch, sometimes requiring several movements of the treatment couch to try to paint the tumor volume with a small x-ray beam. This allows for possible errors from both mechanical and software failure. The high resolution solid compensator IMRT system employed at the Athens Cancer Center has no software controlled moving parts and is capable of treating an area of up to 15 by 15 inches without repositioning the treatment couch or the patient. IMRT may be the radiotherapy treatment recommended for many cancers of the prostate, head and neck area, brain, pancreas, breast, lung and pelvis.