How do linacs work?

How do linacs work?

How does the equipment work? The linear accelerator uses microwave technology (similar to that used for radar) to accelerate electrons in a part of the accelerator called the “wave guide,” then allows these electrons to collide with a heavy metal target to produce high-energy x-rays.

What do you mean by tomotherapy?

Listen to pronunciation. (toh-mah-THAYR-uh-pee) A type of therapy in which radiation is aimed at a tumor from many different directions. The patient lays on a table and is moved through a donut-shaped machine.

What’s a particle accelerator do?

A particle accelerator is a special machine that speeds up charged particles and channels them into a beam. When used in research, the beam hits the target and scientists gather information about atoms, molecules, and the laws of physics.

Who invented the Linac?

Lucky for one young cancer patient in 1956 that Henry Kaplan, MD, had already come to Stanford with an unusual goal: to turn a device used by the physicists on campus—the linear accelerator—into a tool for fighting cancer.

What cancers are treated with IMRT?

Which cancers can be treated with IMRT? IMRT is used at MSK most often to treat prostate cancer, head and neck cancers, lung cancer, brain cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and breast cancer, in part because these tumors tend to be located close to critical organs and tissues in the body.

Is IMRT effective for all tumors?

Radiation therapy, including IMRT, damages the DNA and stops cancer cells from dividing and growing, thus slowing or stopping tumor growth. In many cases, radiation therapy is capable of killing all of the cancer cells, thus shrinking or eliminating tumors.

Is TomoTherapy a linac?

Tomotherapy is a radiation therapy modality, in which the patient is scanned across a modulated strip-beam, so that only one “slice” (Greek prefix “tomo-”) of the target is exposed at any one time by the linear accelerator (linac) beam.