Medical News Today describes an advance in treating lung tumors with radiation therapy. Excerpts below.
Link: NIH-Funded Study Harnesses Elekta Technologies To Offer Hope For Lung Tumor Patients
Lung tumors have been difficult to treat with radiation therapy because patient breathing causes tumors to move around. This uncertainty about the tumor's exact position has made it challenging to target the tumor with radiation beams while simultaneously avoiding normal tissues with these same treatment beams.
Elekta Synergy is an advanced multifunctional linear accelerator equipped with imaging equipment that enables doctors to acquire images of the patient with the patient in the treatment position. Clinicians can then use the imaging data to fine-tune the patient's position immediately prior to treatment. Elekta's Active Breathing Coordinator is designed to help patients suspend their breathing at a precise point, thereby freezing the target's motion to facilitate radiation therapy.
In the William Beaumont study, Elekta's Active Breathing Coordinator will be used to measure respiratory-induced tumor motion and what sort of breath hold (i.e., shallow, deep, on exhalation, on inhalation) will result in the least variability in tumor position. "Our theory is that combining Elekta Synergy IGRT techniques and Active Breathing Coordinator-controlled breath holding will enable us to define how tumors are moving and in turn help us reduce the uncertainties about tumor position related to the patient's breathing," Dr. Hugo says.
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