OnCo
termsTerm

IMRT / IGRT / VMAT (modern external beam radiotherapy)

aka IMRT, IGRT, VMAT, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, intensity-modulated, image-guided radiotherapy, external beam, external-beam, external beam radiotherapy, EBRT, conformal, 3D-conformal

Radiation beams shaped and varied in intensity from many angles so the dose hugs the tumour and misses healthy tissue, checked against daily imaging so it lands where planned.

Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) sculpts dose with a multileaf collimator; volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) does it while the machine rotates, in minutes; image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) uses cone-beam CT or surface tracking before each fraction. Together they cut xerostomia in head and neck cancer (PARSPORT), rectal toxicity in prostate cancer and allowed hypofractionation. Planning quality depends on contouring, now aided by AI auto-segmentation. Proton therapy adds a sharper depth stop for selected tumours.

Category
Procedures

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