RapidArc delivers treatments two to eight times faster than most dynamic treatments while increasing precision – a winning combination that enables physicians to improve the standard of care and help more patients.
Faster is better
Studies have shown that the longer the daily treatment time, the greater the chance that the tumor may move and not receive the full, planned dose. Image Guided Radiation Therapy’s RapidArc technology delivers image-guided IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy) in one or two rotations of the treatment machine around the patient, lasting about two minutes. We are able to localize the tumor and deliver a treatment before the tumor has a chance to move. Our experienced staff is accurate within the width of a thumbnail (1-2mm).
The Technology
RapidArc treatments are administered using a 2100ex medical linear accelerator outfitted with a CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography) imaging system for generating and using 3-dimensional images to pinpoint tumor placement and guide treatment delivery. The radiation is shaped and reshaped as it is continuously delivered from virtually every angle in a 360-degree revolution.
The beam shaping is accomplished using an important accessory called a multi-leaf collimator (MLC), a device with 120 computer-controlled mechanical “leaves” or “fingers” that can move to create apertures of different shapes and sizes. During a RapidArc treatment, specialized software algorithms vary three parameters simultaneously – the speed of rotation around the patient, the shape of the MLC aperture, and the dose delivery rate.