Total body irradiation: a specialised unit

At the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton a specialised unit has been designed for patients requiring total body irradiation (TBI). Total body irradiation requires a single fraction of 10.50 Gy maximum to the midplane of the lungs delivered at a dose rate of approximately 0.05 Gy/minute. The treatment time is four to five hours. The technique has been tailored to achieve a uniform whole body dose, taking into consideration inhomogeneities of the body such as undulating body contours and varying tissue separations and densities.