What about the areas that don't need to be treated?: Department of Radiation Oncology: University of Iowa Health Care

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What about the areas that don't need to be treated?

To protect the patient from unnecessary irradiation to parts of the body not requiring treatment, many safeguards are used. The machines are fully shielded, so that significant radiation is applied only to a specific area. A series of collimators in the machine limits the radiation to the treatment area. Lead blocks are used to “shape” the area treated so that areas requiring treatment are shielded.

Last modification date: Wed Dec 27 15:43:11 2006
URL: http://www.uihealthcare.com /depts/med/radiationoncology/patiented/shielding.html