The Galway Clinic is pleased to offer the delivery of Volumetric Arc Therapy (VMAT). VMAT is an advance in conformal radiotherapy delivered by a state of the art treatment machine from Elekta called the Versa HD. Complex shaped tumour volumes can be treated to a high dose whilst sparing surrounding structures, this is achieved by the beam being delivered as the head of the machine rotates around the patient.
The Versa HD has a device called a multileaf collimator. The multileaf collimator is made up of thin leaves of lead which can move independently.
They can form shapes that fit precisely around the treatment area. The lead leaves can move while the machine moves around the patient. This shapes the beam of radiation to a tumour as the machine rotates.
This means that a tumour receives a very high dose and normal healthy cells nearby receive a much lower dose.
Each radiotherapy beam is divided into many small beamlets that can vary their intensity. This allows different doses of radiation to be given across a tumour.