Prostate Cancer TomoTherapy® Radiation Therapy & Treatment
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Video: TomoTherapy® HI-ART
TomoTherapy® HI-ARTTomoTherapy® HI-ART
TomoTherapy® HI-ART, a form of radiation therapy, precisely targets tumors while reducing radiation exposure to surrounding normal tissue. Listen to Dr. Bernard Eden discuss the benefits of this advanced technology.
TomoTherapy® Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer
Watch a medical animation
to see how TomoTherapy®
HI-ART system works.
The TomoTherapy® Highly Integrated Adaptive Radiotherapy (HI-ART) System optimizes the delivery of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, treating tumors more precisely and reducing side effects.
TomoTherapy combines an advanced form of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) with the accuracy of CT scanning technology, all in one machine. This approach minimizes the damage to healthy tissues, and treats hard-to-reach prostate tumors that often sit close to the bladder and other essential organs.
Before each prostate cancer treatment, a CT scan provides a three-dimensional image of the prostate and surrounding area. The CTCA radiation team uses these images to check the size, shape and location of the tumors, which can change over time. This allows us to fine-tune the radiation treatment each time and precisely target the tumor(s), which spares nearby healthy tissues and organs.
During your prostate cancer radiation therapy session, we will adjust the direction, intensity and shape of the beams in real time. TomoTherapy uses a revolutionary “slice therapy” approach, which treats tumors one layer at a time. This means variable amounts of radiation can be delivered to different parts of a tumor.
In effect, the beam modulates when it’s entering the body through healthy tissue and then targets the tumor. The patented beam-modulating technology divides a single beam into many laser-thin “beamlets,” which are delivered continuously from all angles around the body.
TomoTherapy offers several advantages:
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Before every prostate cancer treatment, advanced scanning technology provides a 3D image of the body, so the radiation beams can be targeted according to the size, shape and location of the prostate tumor(s) on that specific day.
- During treatment, precise, rotating beams of radiation constantly modulate to the size, shape and depth of the tumor.
- After treatment, side effects, like incontinence and erectile dysfunction, are minimized because less radiation reaches healthy tissues and organs near the prostate.
Each TomoTherapy treatment takes about 20 minutes, including roughly five minutes for the CT scan, five minutes for the radiation treatment itself and time for set-up.
If you have reached your maximum tolerance dose of radiation as a result of prior prostate cancer treatment, TomoTherapy may offer an option for advanced radiation therapy.
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