TomoTherapy is one of the the most advanced, integrated cancer treatment systems available.
In 2006 Bupa Cromwell Hospital became the first radiotherapy department in the UK to use TomoTherapy.
TomoTherapy provides an effective and efficient way of treating cancer with radiation, combining three aspects into one integrated system:
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Treatment planning - provides a complex personalised plan for each patient
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Image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) - a built-in scanner allows us to accurately locate the tumour before each radiotherapy treatment procedure
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Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) - the dose of radiotherapy is limited to the precise shape of the tumour.
The TomoTherapy machine looks similar to a CT scanner. The patient lies on a couch that moves continuously through a large rotating ring. Positioned on this ring is a machine which delivers radiation via thousands of beamlets.
The treatment allows the tumour to be targeted from different angles and the dose to be conformed precisely to the shape and size of the tumour, limiting damage to the surrounding healthy tissue and reducing side effects.
The benefits of TomoTherapy
The main benefit is that the radiotherapy is very accurately targeted
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The CT scan taken before each treatment gives us a very clear picture of the exact location of the tumour. This allows us to draw a tighter margin around the tumour and target the radiotherapy more precisely than would otherwise be possible.
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The radiation is delivered via lots of little beamlets coming from all angles, rather than through fewer larger beams. This means the high dose radiation can be concentrated on the tumour, avoiding surrounding healthy areas.
There are very real benefits to the patient from this approach
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Fewer side effects. Avoiding high dose radiation being given to healthy organs and tissue minimises the side effects for the patient.
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The ability to re-treat specific areas. The preciseness of TomoTherapy allows us to re-treat a site while avoiding surrounding organs or tissue, for example the spinal cord, which have already received the maximum radiation dose that they can tolerate. We can now provide a lifeline for patients with treatment that was impossible in the past.
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Time saving. The ability to treat multiple sites at the same time, for example if there are several lesions in the liver, reduces the treatment time.
