IMRT Provides Better Tumor Control, With Fewer Side Effects
Using computer-generated 3-D images from dozens of CT scans, intensity modulated radiation therapy, or IMRT, maps the tumor precisely, then bombards it with high-intensity radiation. At the same time, IMRT radiation skirts organs and other healthy tissue, thereby shielding them from radiation exposure.
IMRT's precision means that many hard-to-reach and "untreatable" tumors are now within range, even some that are wrapped around a patient's spine or in delicate regions of the brain.
- One study found that IMRT increased the success rate of reducing tumors from 43 percent to 96 percent, while reducing complications from 10 percent to 2 percent.1 Another found that breast cancer patients being treated with IMRT were 30 percent less likely to suffer side effects or physical damage from radiation.2
- A study from the Henry Ford Health Center found that IMRT relieved pain from spinal tumors in half the time of alternative therapies (two weeks versus four weeks) and required only one treatment rather than ten.3
- A study in patients with prostate cancer concluded that IMRT is "the approach of choice for high-dose radiotherapy delivery." The reason: relieved symptoms, decreased radiation to non-cancerous tissue, and fewer cases of cancer in the surrounding areas.4
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York is using IMRT to treat cancer of the head, neck, muscles, and bones in children. In many cases, such cancers were inoperable in the past. One example: treatment of a common type of pediatric brain tumor, called medulloblastoma, often caused hearing loss in children because the intensive radiation and chemotherapy caused damage to the inner ear. IMRT, however, is able to keep the radiation dose low enough that doctors do not expect any hearing damage.5
1 "Cancer in the Crosshairs," Brown E, Forbes, page 364, October 28, 2002.
2 "Breast Cancer: New Hopes, New Cures," Reader's Digest, British Edition, Adlam E, October 2003.
3 "Imaging, Radiation Oncology Collaborate to Create More Effective, Targeted Cancer Treatments," Radiological Society of North America, December 4, 2002.
4 "High Dose Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer: Early Toxicity and Biochemical Outcome in 772 Patients," by Zelefsky MJ, Fuks Z, Hunt M, Yamada Y, Marion C, Ling CC, Amols H, Venkatraman, ES, Leibel S, in International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, Volume 53, No. 5; pages 1111-1116, August 2002.
5 "IMRT Reduces Side Effects in Pediatric Patients," Memorial Sloan Kettering, http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/8442.cfm, accessed January 28, 2004.
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