Survey of the Availability and Use of Advanced Radiotherapy Technology in the UK

Based on the consensus of opinion, 32% of radically treated patients should receive inverse-planned IMRT and 22% forward-planned IMRT, making a total of 55%. In fact, 2% receive inverse-planned IMRT and 11% the less complex forward-planned IMRT. Thus, with an estimated 75 948 radical treatments being carried out with megavoltage radiotherapy, the professional opinion is that 41 421 of patients would benefit from treatment with IMRT. In fact, only 9775 were so treated in 2008; a shortfall of 32 497 patients treated instead with conventional radiotherapy.