Precision Beams

Radiotherapy has been a mainstay of cancer treatment for more than a century. Over the years it has evolved from blasting a tumour and the surrounding tissue with poorly targeted X-ray beams, to a precision strike against the disease. Advances in imaging technology, as well as the development of complex, moving machines that deliver radiotherapy, mean that today's doctors can use computer planning to precisely mould radiation beams to the exact shape of a tumour. This image shows a scan through the middle of the head of a patient with throat cancer, whose radiotherapy is being planned using a technique called flattening-filter-free beams, or FFF. The dark red shape in the centre highlights the tumour, which will get the highest dose of cancer-killing radiation. Other colours show regions receiving lower doses, helping to spare important areas in the head and neck, such as the salivary glands, from any damage.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

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• Image by Yvonne Dzierma and colleagues
• Saarland University Medical Center, Germany
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Research published in PLOS One, April 2014