Promises and pitfalls of new technology in radiotherapy

Excerpt

The last 50 years have witnessed an explosion in both our understanding of cancer and in the range of treatments to slow or even halt the progression of cancer. Change has accelerated in the last 10 years with the advent of powerful new modalities such as image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT). Much of this recent progress is due to increased computing power, which allows for nearly instantaneous dosimetric calculations and real-time imaging. IMRT has been called “the most significant technical advance in radiation therapy since the linear accelerator” [1] and there is no doubt that IMRT is a significant improvement over 3D-CRT, which, until very recently, was the standard of care [2, 3]. …