IMAT Treatment – Beneficial Technology for Paediatric Brain Cancer

A research presentation put forth during the fifty-second yearly conference of AAPM (Association of Physicists in Medicine) shows that kids with brain cancer undergoing radiation therapy (X-ray beams focused for killing malignant cells and shrivelling tumors) might be benefited by a technology termed as ‘IMAT’ or intensity modulated arc therapy.

Intensity modulated arc therapy method is reliant on novel attributes of the newest generation of X-ray treatment device which provide X ray sources in continually rotating varied directions encircling the patient at the time of therapy. This technique helps to increase directions from which the X-ray beams are coming from.

The research that was carried out by physical scientists from the St. Jude Children’s Hospital located in Memphis Tennessee carried out comparisons in between varied therapy approaches inclusive of the intensity modulated arc therapy for 9 kids who were undergoing radiation therapy treatment for brain cancer. The study investigators observed that IMAT was capable of irradiating such brain tumors and also reduced general exposure to the adjoining healthy tissues.

Chris Beltran, a medical physicist from St. Jude Children’s Hospital and presenter of the research in Philadelphia stated that the study intended on reducing radiation dosage which was undoubtedly better for the patients.

Cancer treatment via radiation therapy could be complex in case of particular forms of tumors which are encased by sensitive normal cells. A number of brain tumors, for example, are deeply set within the cranium and might need the X-rays to penetrate via crucial body parts such as the eye, ear and sections of the brain.

The X-rays emitted during radiation therapy are capable of damaging such body constitutions that could cause permanent side effects due to the treatment. When ionizing X-rays are sent via the ear, they might harm the cochlea and cause long-standing auditory failure. Similarly, when the temporal lobes of the brain are exposed to the X-rays during radiation therapy it could lead to intellectual ability loss.

According to Chris Beltran, current gear for administering radiation therapy facilitates continual movement of X-ray source around the person. It thus offers the liberty to select the source location of the X-ray beams.

Beltran’s study has suggested that a therapy plan inculcating intensity modulated arc therapy would aid in sparing the sensitive healthy normal tissues. Employing prevalent measures which associate radiation dose to tissue harm, Beltran forecasts that the intensity modulation arc therapy plan could help in curbing auditory loss and harm to the temporal lobes in the brain in comparison to other therapy plans.

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