Design of Mounting System for Gantries in Medical Applications

The treatment of tumours and cancerous cells that are surgically inoperable or resistant to traditional treatments, is typically achieved through radiotherapy. In standard radiotherapy treatment, a beam of X-ray or electrons is fired at the cancerous cells. One main disadvantage of this kind of treatment is that the beam also damages the healthy tissue surrounding the tumour. Another type is hadron therapy, which is similar but instead of electrons and X-ray, it uses protons and carbon ions, usually called hadrons. This treatment is advantageous because these ions are heavier, and so, have more energy, making them more effective in treating cancer cells [1]. Figure 1(a) illustrates another main advantage of hadron therapy, which provides more precise treatment than X-ray therapy. This is because the intensity of the beam can be intensified only at the depth of the cancerous cells, while safeguarding healthy tissue. This is possible due to more precise energy release during the treatment [2, 3]. The beam intensity of the traditional X-ray therapy is shown to be relatively high in Figure 1(a), both through the cancerous and healthy tissues. A gantry is used to direct the beam to the patient at any angle required. The patient lies on a horizontal treatment table, and a rotating gantry is used as shown in Figure 1(b). This way, doctors can irradiate the tumour from different angles, sparing even more of the surrounding tissue [4, 5].