Intensity‐modulated radiation therapy: First reported treatment in Australasia

Abstract

Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is an exciting new advance in the practice of radiation oncology. It is the use of non-uniform radiation beams to achieve conformal dose distributions. As a result of the high initial capital costs and the time and complexity of planning, IMRT is not yet a widely available clinical treatment option. We describe the process involved in applying this new technology to a case of locally advanced nasopharyngeal cancer.

Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation With IMRT: New Technical Approach and Interim Analysis of Acute Toxicity in a Phase III Randomized Clinical Trial

“…dose to reach the target with maximal sparing of the dose to the normal tissues. The treatment system involves the use of multileaf collimators, which divide each beam into many small segments that are each weighted such that the overall beam intensity pattern achieves the desired target coverage and critical tissue sparing (16,17).…”

The Management of Perineural Spread of Squamous Cell Carcinoma to the Ocular Adnexae

“…Intensity-modulated radiation treatment allows for maximal shielding of uninvolved tissues and is an exciting prospect. 24,25 Patient immobilization and contemporary 3-dimensional conformal planning are required to tightly define treatment volumes with fraction sizes compatible with longterm cerebral and vascular function.…”

Medical physics publishing in a changing research environment: the Australasian Physical & Engineering Sciences in Medicine 40th anniversary editorial

“…Since the earliest reported delivery a modulated radiotherapy treatment in Australia and New Zealand in 2002 [12], the use of inverse planning has progressed to the point that most if not all centres in Australia and New Zealand are now treating with modulated techniques. The delivery of increasingly complex treatments to smaller targets has placed demands on physics time (with all treatments requiring patient-specific quality assurance testing) and has required vendors and individuals to develop more sophisticated one-, two-and threedimensional dosimeters, and to fabricate more specialised phantoms.…”