Designed for you.
The TomoTherapy Hi·Art System at CARTI/UAMS is a new, revolutionary way to treat cancer with radiation. With the TomoTherapy Hi·Art System, your UAMS physician can check the location of your tumor before each treatment, then deliver painless and precise radiation therapy based on a carefully customized plan. We have chosen TomoTherapy for you because it combines precise 3-D imaging from computerized tomography (CT scanning) with highly targeted radiation beams.

Different from the rest
The TomoTherapy Hi·Art System introduces the two-step Tomo Process:

 Tomo-Graphy:  Your therapist can take a verification CT image before each treatment to make sure your radiation thereapy treatment is targeted to the exact location of your tumor. Some types of tumors can change shape or even shift from day to day. With this new system, your physician can be sure that each treatment is targeted right where it should be.

Tomo-Therapy:  This new system uses a rotating beam of radiation that is constantly modulated to target the exact size and shape of your cancer. During your treatment, the radiation is focused on the tumor area while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.

Before each treatment, your therapist can take a verification CT image of the treatment site to check its exact size, shape, and most importantly, location. By locating the tumor our physcians can reduce the amount of radiation that healthy tissues receive while concentrating the radiation where it is needed most—at the tumor site.

During your treatment, the radiation rotates 360 degrees delivering small beamlets of radiation from every point on a spiral. The rotating TomoTherapy beam can accurately shape the radiation as prescribed by your physician and can treat both large tumors and multiple sites at the same time.

The TomoTherapy Hi·Art System is the newest radiation delivery system available, delivering precise radiation to tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding tissues.

Benefits of the Tomo Process

-  Precisely identifying the tumor before treatment

-  Modifying the plan during treatment to reflect patient anatomy

-  Safely escalating radiation dose to maximize tumor control

-  Minimizing complications and damage to  healthy tissue


The day of treatment
After checking in for your daily treatment, you will be taken to the TomoTherapy room where a radiation therapist will help you onto the Hi·Art System’s couch. You will probably lie on your back, and the therapist may fit you with a special device to help you hold still during your TomoTherapy treatment. First, the couch will move you through the machine once for your verification CT imaging. Based on these images, the therapist may change your position or move the couch slightly to make sure the treatment targets the correct area. Then the couch will carry you through the machine once again, this time more slowly, as your treatment is delivered.

What you can expect
The procedure usually takes about 15 minutes. It is important that you move as little as possible during the actual treatment.  It is painless and feels no different than having a CT scan or an X-ray taken. You may hear a clicking noise and the hum of the machine. These are normal sounds that the system makes. You will not feel or see the treatment as it is being performed.

Find out more.
For more information about TomoTherapy or radiation oncology at CARTI/UAMS call, 501-526-7474.
www.radonc.uams.edu