linear accelerator
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GC: n

CT: A linear accelerator (LINAC) is the device most commonly used for external beam radiation treatments for patients with cancer.
The linear accelerator can be/is used to treat all parts/organs of the body. It delivers high-energy x-rays to the region of the patient’s tumor. These x-ray treatments can be designed in such a way that they destroy the cancer cells while sparing the surrounding normal tissue.

S: Duhaime – https://bit.ly/2AzBIGc (last access: 9 January 2019)

N: 1. – linear (adj): from French linéaire, from Latin linearis ‘belonging to a line’, from linea ‘string’, ‘line’.
– accelerator (n): from Latin accelerator, agent noun from accelerare ‘to hasten’, ‘make haste’.

  • Abbreviation: linac.

2. A device in which charged particles are accelerated in a straight line by successive impulses from a series of electric fields
3. Linear accelerator is often shortened to ‘linac’.
4. Proton linacs:

  • typically operate at frequencies of about 200 megahertz (MHz),
  • electric fields are set up as standing waves within a cylindrical metal ‘resonant cavity’, with drift tubes suspended along the central axis.

Electron linacs:

  • the accelerating force is provided by an electromagnetic field with a microwave frequency of about 3,000 MHz,
  • utilize traveling waves rather than standing waves,
  • because of their small mass, electrons travel at close to the speed of light at energies as low as 5 megaelectron volts.

5. In medicine, a linear accelerator (LINAC) is the device most commonly used for external beam radiation treatments for patients with cancer. The linear accelerator is used to treat all parts/organs of the body. It delivers high-energy x-rays or electrons to the region of the patient’s tumor. These treatments can be designed in such a way that they destroy the cancer cells while sparing the surrounding normal tissue. The LINAC is used to treat all body sites, using conventional techniques:

  • Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT),
  • Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT),
  • Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT),
  • Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS),
  • Stereotactic Body Radio Therapy (SBRT).

6. linear accelerator: an item in the “Nuclear Physics Tools and Equipment” class of the “Tools and Equipment for Science and Technology” category.

S: 1. OED – https://bit.ly/2CZDzG4; https://bit.ly/2M1dwkB (last access: 9 January 2019); Duhaime – https://bit.ly/2AzBIGc (last access: 9 January 2019). 2. MW – https://bit.ly/2CYioEe (last access: 9 January 2019). 3 & 4. EncBrit – https://bit.ly/2C8WUTA (last access: 9 January 2019). 5. RADIOIN – https://bit.ly/2SKoyxh (last access: 9 January 2019). 6. TERMIUM PLUS – https://bit.ly/2TJTv4B (last access: 13 January 2019)).

SYN: 1. linear particle accelerator. 2. linac.

S: 1. EncBrit – https://bit.ly/2C8WUTA (last access: 9 January 2019). 2. GDT – https://bit.ly/2FtFZOJ (last access: 13 January 2019); EncBrit – https://bit.ly/2C8WUTA (last access: 9 January 2019).

CR: atom, electricity, electromagnetic wave, electron , ion , muon , nuclear energy, nuclear fission, nuclear reactor, particle, particle accelerator, photonics, proton , radioactivity, synchrotron, X-rays.