What is Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT)?

IMRT is short for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy. The intensity of the radiation in IMRT can be changed during treatment to spare more adjoining normal tissue than is spared during conventional radiation therapy. Because of this an increased dose of radiation can be delivered to the tumor using IMRT.

IMRT enables a more precise conformal radiation dose distribution to the target area by allowing the physician to control the intensity of the radiation beam within a given area. Again, this means a much higher dose of radiation may be given to a tumor without an increase in radiation delivered to the normal tissue. IMRT utilizes beams or multileaf collimators that can turn on or off or be blocked during treatment, varying the radiation beam intensity across the targeted field.

The radiation beams may be moved dozens or hundreds of times and each may have a different intensity, resulting in radiation sculpted in three dimensions. The healthy surrounding tissue receives a smaller dose of radiation than the tumor does.

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