Whole body electron therapy in mycosis fungoides
Mandelzweig, Y.; Kuten, A.; Tatcher, M.; Yudelev, M.; Cohen, Y.; Robinson, E.
Harefuah 100(10): 452-454
1981
ISSN/ISBN: 0017-7768 PMID: 7030884 Document Number: 181518
Whole body electron irradiation is frequently used in the treatment of mycosis fungoides, a disease which may involve large areas of the body surface. The major technological problems encountered in whole body electron therapy (WBET) are delivery of radiation to a layer 10-15 mm deep uniformly over all of the patient's body and minimizing contamination of the beam by Bremsstrahlung X-rays generated in electron interactions with matter located between the electron source and the patient. In the most common method of WBET, patients are irradiated by beams of 3-4 MeV electrons while standing at a distance of .apprx. m from the electron source to produce large treatment fields. At this distance the maximum intensity of the standard 4 MeV electron beam from our Philips SL 75/10 Linac is only .apprx. 10 rad/min while the X-ray contamination increases from a tolerable value below 2% at 1 m to .apprx. 8%. These conditions are not acceptable, hence a long distance method is not suitable for this mechine. An alternative procedure is to treat the patient at a shorter distance with an electron beam that scans the surface of his body. This provides a practical solution to the clinical requirements with respect to uniformity of electron dose and low X-ray contamination. Its implementation does not require special equipment or modification of the Linac.