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Advanced Treatment Tools
A vast improvement over standard radiation, IMRT is being heralded as one of the most significant advancements in radiation therapy during the last 30 years. It administers a radiation field that consists of several small beams of varying intensities that pass through normal tissue without doing damage, but converge to give a precise dose of radiation at the tumor site. In this way, IMRT limits adverse side effects from radiation while increasing the intensity of doses that can be given to effectively destroy cancer cells. Side effects from standard radiation treatment can include injuries to nerves or brain tissue, the salivary gland, jaw bone, spinal cord, or the bowel or urinary tract. IMRT conforms the radiation distribution tightly to the three-dimensional irregular shape of a tumor. Instead of treating a tumor with a few large and uniform flat beams, as has been done in the past, IMRT treats the tumor with several small beams of different intensities. The intensity of each of these individual beams is optimized to directly target and destroy the tumor. Radiation Oncologists at Cancer Care Northwest use an advanced type of IMRT that is fitted with a multileaf collimeter - a device with a series of computer controlled mobile apertures that subdivide radiation beams into many “beamlets” aimed in various directions, providing varying intensities of radiation. This type of IMRT also uses a dynamic delivery system, or a “sliding windows” technique that further optimizes radiation delivery by improving its accuracy to specifically target areas in a tumor. IMRT is combined with a process called inverse treatment planning to determine the best way to treat a patient. It relies on CT (computed tomography) and MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) data from patients that is processed and analyzed by a complex computer system to produce the ideal radiation dose distribution for that patient. Prior to the innovation of such computer systems, the process of determining how radiation should be delivered was less precise and much more labor intensive and time consuming, since it required technicians to manually set and evaluate equipment after each treatment. Nearly two-thirds of all cancer patients receive ionizing radiation therapy to treat their disease. During standard radiation therapy, high-energy beams are aimed at cancer cells to destroy them by permanently damaging their underlying genetic material. While these high-energy beams are targeted to the tumor site as precisely as possible, they often inadvertently injure healthy tissues that surround a tumor site. As a result, radiologists have been limited in the doses of radiation that they can use to effectively destroy cancer. IMRT is now available at Cancer Care Northwest to treat head and neck cancer, brain tumors, prostate cancer as well as certain types of gynecologic cancer. The IMRT Experts at Cancer Care Northwest IMRT is
a sophisticated technology that requires highly trained personnel
with considerable experience using it to treat cancer patients.
Our board certified radiation oncologists have all received
advanced training in IMRT. Meet our IMRT team of experts. Robert K. Fairbanks
, M.D. Dr. Robert Fairbanks joined Cancer Care Northwest in May of 2001 as a board certified Radiation Oncologist. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M Medical School specializing in Radiotherapy for patients with lymphoma, gastrointestinal carcinoma and lung cancer. He practiced general radiation oncology in Everett prior to moving to Spokane. A native of southwestern Arizona, Dr. Fairbanks obtained his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University where he studied cell biology. He received his MD degree from Tulane University Medical School where he also completed his internship as a transitional resident. While in medical school, he was awarded research fellowship grants from the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. He received his residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Fairbanks’ interest in lymphoma led him to pursue a research rotation at the Mayo Clinic where he reviewed and published a paper describing the world’s largest series of patients with early stage primary bone lymphoma. During his training at Johns Hopkins, he received specialty training in pediatric radiotherapy, low and high dose rate brachytherapy and hyperthermia. Since finishing his residency, Dr. Fairbanks has completed specialized training in prostate seed implantation, Gamma Knife radiosurgery, Intravascular brachytherapy for coronary artery restenosis, and Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT).
Wayne T. Lamoreaux,
M.D. Dr. Lamoreaux received his B.A. degree from Utah State University in Logan, UT and then obtained his M.D. degree in 2000 from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. In 2001, he finished a Transitional Internship at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane. He completed his four-year residency at Washington University in St. Louis at the Mallinckrodt Institute, Department of Radiation Oncology, a premier academic institution and a leader in IMRT, image-guided and stereotactic radiotherapy, and brachytherapy. While at Mallinckrodt, he served as Chief Resident. Throughout his career, he has been actively involved in clinical and basic science research. He has co-authored scientific articles and has presented his research at many national and international oncology meetings. In 2004, Dr. Lamoreaux received the RSNA Roentgen Resident/Fellow Research Award. Click here to read the Frequently Asked Questions about IMRT. ### |
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