Radiation beams must be shaped to match their intended targets. Within virtually all treatment machines, soon after the beam is produced it is "collimated" into a useful shape by blocking unwanted parts of the beam. Depending on the desired shape, additional blocking of the beam is usually required. We custom build most of the blocks that our patients require and have a dedicated block-fabrication facility with a full-time block-cutting specialist. In addition, our Varian 2300CD linear accelerator has an 80-leaf collimator that is used to shape the beam further, under computer-controlled guidance, into complex geometric shapes for patients who require this technology. Our Varian 2100CD linear accelerator has a 120-leaf collimator with similar capabilities. Both systems have the ability to create static field shapes or to dynamically collimate an active beam to alter the beam intensity as well as the beam shape.

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