Tomotherapy and nuclear medicine centre to open in Astana
Tomotherapy is a type of radiation therapy in which the radiation is delivered slice-by-slice. It is also called helical tomotherapy. It combines a form of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), with the accuracy of computed tomography (CT) scanning technology, in one machine.
It was invented 10 years ago. There are 120 similar machines in the world so far, most of them are used in the US. Tomotherapy helps doctors find the highest dose of radiation that can be used to kill tumor cells while causing less damage to nearby tissue.
"It is notably that Kazakhstan has bought two machines of the most up-do-date model released. First of all, it is the latest technology, secondly, it is quite expensive. Machines cost more than USD 5 mln each," chairman of the board of the National Scientific and Medical Centre Abai Baigenzhin told.
As stated there, the smart technology combines cyber knife and gamma knife to treat brain cancer and visceral cancers.