Total body irradiation with a sweeping beam.

A technique for total body irradiation, in which the patient lies in the prone or supine position in the beam of a conventional column mounted 4 MV linear accelerator, is described. A sufficiently large radiation field is obtained by rotating the beam in a vertical plane about the source (i.e., sweeping beam) at a source-to-skin distance of 190 cm on the vertical axis. The variation of the midplane dose is less than +/- 5% in parallel-opposed beams, when attenuators are placed over the region containing the lungs and bolus is employed around the head and legs. The percentage depth dose for the sweeping beam is identical to that of a stationary beam for the same collimator setting and source-to-skin distance. A method for monitoring the dose to the patient by means of a thimble ionization chamber located on the vertical beam axis is outlined. The average dose rates used are between 5 and 10 cGy/min. The design and placement of lung attenuators is simple. The treatment technique with the sweeping beam requires minimal modification of a treatment unit and can be applied on any unit which has a head swivel option.