Tomotherapy

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. The three components distinctive to this modality are: (1) a collimator pair that defines the length of the strip, (2) a binary multileaf collimator whose leaves open and close during treatment to modulate the strip’s intensity, and (3) a couch that scans the patient across the beam at a fixed speed the during treatment delivery. 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. The three components distinctive to this modality are: (1) a collimator pair that defines the length of the strip, (2) a binary multileaf collimator whose leaves open and close during treatment to modulate the strip’s intensity, and (3) a couch that scans the patient across the beam at a fixed speed the during treatment delivery.