Read more… - Behestan Darman

ACCOUNTING FOR TIME AND MOVEMENTTARGETED TREATMENTSThe right timeClinicians can trust that Varian systems will deliver treatment at theright time, the instant that the tumor is on target. Whether it’sday-to-day repositioning of the patient or managing motion thatoccurs during treatment, Varian has developed the necessary DynamicTargeting IGRT process tools: cone-beam CT, radiographic, fluoroscopic,ultrasound, optical and gating. With Varian systems you can personalizethe care for each patient based on that patient’s condition and yourindividual clinical protocol.BREAST, RESPIRATORY GATING. Better targeting of dose.Varian systems provide respiratory gating and fluoroscopic field verificationof the tumor’s exact pretreatment location. These technologies effectively“freeze” the motion caused by a patient’s breathing during treatment.The heart is protected from unnecessaryradiation during breast treatment with theRPM respiratory gating system.“For some women, when we use standard breast tangent techniques,a fair bit of cardiac volume gets encompassed in the treatment field,” saysFrancine Halberg, MD, Marin Cancer Institute, Greenbrae, CA, “We havemade a commitment to our breast cancer patients to no longer treat theirhearts.”Tumors change position, both during andbetween treatments. With image-guidedradiotherapy (IGRT), clinicians must be ableto quickly reposition patients relative to both thenew tumor location and the machine’s isocenter.Cone-beam CT images are acquired to accountfor inter-fraction movement of the patient,based upon the positioning of soft tissues,while Varian’s RPM respiratory gating systemkeeps track of intra-fraction movement.“IGRT will be especially important for ensuring aprecision treatment, particularly when we areperforming IMRT and/or escalating the dose.”Fang-Fang Yin, PhD, Director of Medical PhysicsDuke University Medical Center, Durham, NCHEAD AND NECK. Position, verify, monitor quickly.The use of cone-beam CT with automated matching allows fastrepositioning of head and neck patients. And with infrared opticaltechnology, secondary setup verification and patient positionmonitoring can be done during treatment.PROSTATE. All the right tools.Prostate lesions can be positioned using optically guided, infrared-basedpositioning with ultrasound images. Ultrasound-based guidance permitsmore accurate positioning of the prostate under the beam compared totraditional positioning methodology.Using Varian’s On-Board Imager, 3D - 3Dcone-beam CT image registration facilitatesaccurate day-to-day patient positioning.Specialized IGRT tools add tocomprehensive treatment options.Here, guided prostate localizationpermits accuracy.