How Can Linac-Based Radiotherapy Benefit Patients?
Radiotherapy treatment has been around since the end of the 19th century, providing a new means of tackling cancer by shrinking tumours through the depletion of their DNA. This is a remarkable use of radiation, given that the actual structure of DNA was not identified until the 1960s.
Understanding more about DNA and how it relates to cancer is one part of the equation. But to make treatment more effective, the use of new and more precise forms of delivering radiotherapy is another element.
This is especially true when the target area, such as a tumour, lies near sensitive tissues like the brain. In this case, damage to nearby areas will have severe consequences that need to be avoided if at all possible.
What Is Linac-Based Radiotherapy?
Linac-based radiotherapy is one of these innovations. The term Linac is an abbreviation for linear accelerator. As Physics-Network explains, it is a kind of particle accelerator that “imparts a series of relatively small increases in energy to subatomic particles as they pass through a sequence of alternating electric fields set up in a linear structure.”
When used for radiography treatment, the idea is that, by creating a linear beam instead of a broader one, it can be focused on a much smaller area, enabling it to be targeted with greater precision than other, older forms of radiation delivery.
It does this by generating photon X-rays that use microwave energy to accelerate electrons to a very high speed. This is the same principle used, albeit on a vastly smaller scale, to giant particle accelerators like CERN, which lies deep beneath the mountains on the Swiss-French border and is used for cutting-edge research.
Linac-based radiotherapy may have a rather different purpose than trying to make discoveries about the Higgs Boson or gravity waves, but it represents a massive upgrade on the less accurate tools for delivering radiotherapy that existed in the past.
This is because with surrounding tissue not being exposed, more powerful and intense beams of radiation can be delivered safely to the exact point where they are needed, delivering a more effective dose to tumours.
Indeed, the device can be configured in such a way as to be tailored to the exact shape of a tumour, which means your treatment will be very precise in targeting all of the areas that need to be bombarded with radiation to shrink the tumour, while sparing surrounding areas from being exposed.
Studies have shown just how safe and effective this form of radiotherapy is. For example, in 2021 the National Library of Medicine in the US published a study highlighting that the use of this treatment in tackling secretory and non-secretory pituitary adenomas was very safe, based on three-year follow-ups of patients who had undergone such treatment.
Seven Decades Of Linac Use
By then, the use of Linac treatment had been established for decades. As Physics in Medicine and Biology noted in its history of the technique published in 2006, the first recorded case of it being used to treat a patient came at the Hammersmith Hospital in London in 1953.
This was itself the next step forward from the advent of higher-dose radiotherapy, which had been pioneered in the form of megavoltage external beam radiotherapy in 1937 and represented a further advance in the transition from radiotherapy merely being a palliative treatment to offering genuine hope of a cure.
Developments around this time included the establishment of the roentgen as a unit of measurement for radiation, as well as the development of beam direction devices and other equipment designed to focus radiation on specific areas to avoid damaging surrounding tissue.
The first machine in London was swiftly followed by more across the UK, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Christie Cancer Hospital in Manchester and Edinburgh. More were soon to follow across Britain and in other countries.
What You Can Expect
If you are a patient who may benefit from treatment using a Linac machine, the fact these devices have been in use for so long and are so well-established should be highly reassuring. It means the treatment you may have with us uses a tried-and-tested method that dates back to the 1950s and even, in some respects, the 1930s.
Of course, for those who face cancer treatment that may be life-extending or even life-saving, the process can still be a gruelling one, as no radiotherapy is without its side-effects, even when the process is concentrated in such a way as to maximise the medical impact while minimising unwanted damage.
Nonetheless, if you undergo Linac-based radiotherapy, you can be assured you are enjoying the benefits of one of the safest and most effective ways of delivering radiotherapy.
