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Children with brain tumors who undergo radiation therapy may benefit from intensity modulated arc therapy (IMAT), according to the results of a study presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine.
Medical physicists at St. Jude Children's Hospital, in Memphis, TN, compared different treatment strategies, including IMAT, for nine children treated with radiation therapy for brain tumors. IMAT was able to irradiate the tumors effectively while reducing exposure to the surrounding tissue.
"Anything we can do to reduce that dose is obviously better," said study leader Chris Beltran.
Treating cancer through radiation therapy can be complicated for certain types of tumors that are surrounded by sensitive tissue. Brain tumors that are deep inside the skull may require the radiation to pass through critical structures, such as the ears and parts of the brain. Damage to these structures can lead to lasting side effects, including loss of hearing or mental acuity.
Modern equipment for radiation therapy allows the source of X-rays to move continuously around the patient, Beltran said. "It gives you the freedom to choose where the beams come from."
His study showed that a treatment plan incorporating IMAT would help spare the sensitive surrounding tissues. IMAT will cause less hearing loss and damage to the temporal lobes compared to other treatments, he predicted.
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