Radiation Oncology

Radiotherapy - Prostate Cancer Treatment Process using volumetric modulated arc therapy

RapidArc™ radiotherapy technology is a major advance from Varian Medical Systems that improves dose conformity while significantly shortening treatment times. RapidArc delivers treatments two to eight times faster than our fastest dynamic treatments today and increase precision—a winning combination that enables physicians to improve the standard of care and provide cancer treatments to more patients.

RapidArc™ is a volumetric arc therapy that delivers a precisely sculpted 3D dose distribution with a single 360-degree rotation of the linear accelerator gantry. It is made possible by a treatment planning algorithm that simultaneously changes three parameters during treatment:

Rotation speed of the gantry
Shape of the treatment aperture using the movement of multileaf collimator leaves
Delivery dose rate.

Volumetric modulated arc therapy differs from existing techniques like IMRT or intensity-modulated arc therapy (IMAT) because it delivers dose to the whole volume, rather than slice by slice. And the treatment planning algorithm ensures the treatment precision, helping to spare normal healthy tissue.

RapidArc™ radiotherapy technology is easy to implement and requires no major process changes from the physician. While the treatment time is much faster, the steps for planning and delivering treatments are virtually the same as today’s IMRT and IGRT treatment techniques. As a result, a single arc can deliver essentially similar dose distributions compared with IMRT plans that incorporate as many as 36 fields. IMRT treatments apply dose in thick overlapping slices that take more time to deliver. IMAT, which uses five to seven concentric arcs to deliver a conformal dose distribution, takes up to five times longer to deliver than a treatment using RapidArc™.

RapidArc™ radiotherapy technology advances the standard of care with uncompromised treatment in two minutes or less. RapidArc ™ compares favorably with conventional IMRT and helical IMRT planning.

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These materials are informational only and should not be used in place of advice from a medical professional. If you have any questions about a specific treatment, please ask your physician.

Although this information is updated regularly, Las Colinas Cancer Center makes no representations or warranties about the suitability of this information for use for any particular purpose. All information is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

Thank you for your interest in our radiation oncology programs by Las Colinas Cancer Center.

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