Radixact: More Precise Radiation Therapy for Cancer Patients

Radixact™ is a new image-guided adaptive radiation therapy treatment machine. Created by Accuray, this next-generation TomoTherapy^® platform will offer even more precise targeting of tumors than previous TomoTherapy technology. 

Using a linear accelerator (linac for short) guided by on-board 3-D computed tomography (CT) imaging, this radiation treatment system delivers a high dose of radiation to the tumor exactly where it's needed, while substantially decreasing the dose to nearby healthy tissues. Radixact offers seamless integration of image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy.

Radixact Adapts to Personalize Your Treatment

Using 3-D volumetric CT imaging, your doctor will verify the position of the tumor and, if needed, adjust your position right before each treatment. This helps ensure radiation is directed exactly where it needs to go. With each CT scan, your doctor can not only confirm the size and position of the tumor, but can also see any changes in your anatomy. Your doctor can then “adapt” or personalize the treatment plan to your new anatomy or tumor size.

This is important because as you go through treatment, you’re likely to experience anatomical changes: you could lose weight, or the tumor may shrink. Daily imaging helps ensure that a tumor receives the most effective dose and that radiation exposure to surrounding tissues is minimized according to the treatment plan.

How Radixact Works

As the linac machine rotates 360 degrees around you, it moves in unison with a device called a multi-leaf collimator. The multi-leaf collimator opens and closes quickly to permit or block radiation beams. Each radiation beam is divided into many smaller, narrow "beamlets" which can each deliver a different dose of radiation. Different radiation doses go to different parts of each tumor, with less damage to surrounding healthy tissues. The pattern of movement is precisely calculated before treatment starts, so the radiation beams always conform to or are "shaped to" your tumor. In this way, every treatment is personalized to you and your cancer.

Benefits of Radixact

Because Radixact is so precise, radiation oncologists can deliver higher, more effective doses of radiation to the tumor. Treatment is delivered continuously from 360 degrees around you. Doctors can also deliver radiation beams from specific, fixed angles. This flexibility gives doctors more control in how they plan treatments — and more assurance that doses will be confined to the tumor, reducing the risk of short- and long-term side effects for you.

The technology also delivers treatment faster, providing effective treatment in a fraction of the time. The treatment takes 10 to 20 minutes from the time you enter the treatment room until you leave. It means more convenience if you travel a distance for treatment or fit treatment into a busy family or work schedule.

Radixact can treat patients with most types of cancers and may be appropriate if you have had radiation therapy before. That hasn't always been the case due to the risk of exposing critical structures, such as the spinal cord, to radiation that moves beyond the target zone.