The potential for image guided radiation therapy with cobalt-60 tomotherapy

Abstract

Helical tomotherapy, a new approach for Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, employs a fan-beam of radiation from a source mounted in a CT-like ring gantry. Complex conformal dose delivery is achieved by modulating the intensity of the radiation beam as the source revolves about the patient. A particular benefit of helical tomotherapy is the ability to perform in-situ CT imaging to confirm patient set-up, and to reconstruct the dynamically delivered dose distributions. In this paper we present the results of ongoing work to establish the potential for tomotherapy using a Cobalt-60 radioactive source. Both dose delivery and megavoltage CT imaging data confirm the feasibility of image guided radiation therapy using Cobalt-60 tomotherapy.