Designing attenuators for total-body irradiation using virtual simulation

Photon Total Body Irradiation for Leukemia Transplantation Therapy: Rationale and Technique Options

“…Scatter radiation from other components within the room, such as walls and equipment, will apply to this extended distance large field treatment and should be accounted. One of the major complications of large field radiotherapy is radiation pneumonitis (Corns et al, 2000). For total lung radiation, this syndrome is lethal in 80% of the patients who develop it.…”

“…For total lung radiation, this syndrome is lethal in 80% of the patients who develop it. Because of this effect, Corns et al (2000) warns that it is imperative that the dose to the lung be precisely controlled to ensure the probability of its occurrence is minimal. Even in standard radiation treatments, a calculation of the lung dose requires density corrections to the standard attenuation data (Bentel, 1992).…”

Total body irradiation with a reconditioned cobalt teletherapy unit

“…The recent expansion and upgrading of our radiotherapy department involved the decommissioning of a 30‐year‐old isocentric cobalt teletherapy unit (Theratron‐780, AECL, Ottawa, Canada) and the replacement of a column‐mounted 4‐MV LINAC (Therapi 4, SHM, Sunnyvale, CA), which has been used for total body irradiation (TBI) with a sweeping beam technique ( 1 , 2 ) for 25 years. To continue offering TBI treatments, we converted the decommissioned cobalt unit into a dedicated total body irradiator and installed it in an existing medium‐energy LINAC bunker.…”