Total marrow irradiation using TomoTherapy System performed at City of Hope

Madison, Wis. - Madison-based TomoTherapy's HI-ART System was put to a new use June 8, with its first application of it for whole marrow irradiation at City of Hope Cancer Center near Los Angeles.

"We wanted to explore the use of TomoTherapy to selectively deliver radiation therapy to the entire marrow compartment, sparing radiation to critical normal organs such as lung, heart, brain, GI tract, oral mucosa, hypopharynx and larynx," said Dr. Jeffrey Wong, chair of the Division of Radiation Oncology, in a press release.

It is hoped that this newer method of whole body irradiation will be able to help accomplish the necessary task of fighting different kinds of cancer while at the same time reducing unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy that have made treating it so difficult for patients.