Can you treat skin well without electrons? Across the Icon Cancer Centre network, more sites are saying yes, and the dosimetry backs them up. With Halcyon now running at multiple centers as the workhorse for skin, including sites where it serves as a regional skin radiotherapy hub, the network has built real experience treating complex skin disease with photon VMAT instead of traditional electrons. 

In this webinar, Lead Medical Physicist Talia Jarema makes the dosimetric case for photon VMAT over electron treatment. Talia commissioned the first Halcyon in the southern hemisphere and wrote the QA protocols now standardized across all Halcyon and Ethos linacs in the Icon network, so she speaks from the platform’s foundation, not just its use. Using real planned cases, scalp, limb, and Dupuytren’s, she shows where VMAT wins on homogeneity, setup reproducibility, and delivery robustness, and is honest about where electrons still hold an edge. If your center is weighing whether to keep, drop, or work around electron capability, this session gives you the evidence to decide. 

What you’ll take away: 

Why photon VMAT often beats single-beam electrons on dose homogeneity for irregular and curved surfaces, shown through side-by-side scalp and limb plans 

How auto-feathering, IDENTIFY SGRT monitoring, and CBCT verification solve the junction and setup problems that limit electron delivery on extremities 

A commissioning insight on electron Monte Carlo dose uncertainty around bone that’s easy to miss in scalp cases 

When electrons still make sense, and the real trade-offs: low-dose spillage and longer treatment time

After viewing this webinar, participants will be to: 

- Describe the dosimetric trade-offs between photon VMAT and single-beam electrons when treating superficial and complex skin targets 

- Outline the role of auto-feathering, IDENTIFY SGRT, and CBCT verification in improving setup accuracy and junction dosimetry for skin treatments on Halcyon 

- Explain the rationale for selecting photon VMAT over electrons for irregular or curved skin surfaces such as scalp, limb, and Dupuytren’s contracture 

- Discuss the limitations of photon VMAT for skin treatment, including low-dose spillage and longer treatment time, and the situations where electrons remain appropriate