Posts Tagged ‘Treatment planning’
During the 2009 AAPM show, there has been a great deal of positive feedback for Elekta’s new Symmetry 4D imaging feature that demonstrates 4D cone beam CT, a new addition to the software providing real time data on tumor movement to enable more accurate treatments where intra fraction motion is a significant clinical challenge. This feature takes advantage of Elekta’s superior imaging capabilites and best-of-breed workflow management which is less cumbersome than other options available in the market.
There has also been great interest in Elekta Impac Software’s MOSAIQ 2.0 with its site verification window. This new feature allows radiation therapists to sign off on the patient’s treatments by verifying the patient’s photo and Date of Birth information, meeting JCAHO standards for two verification points.
Fast, easy downloads to update RTP Software now available online
CMS Software
Elekta CMS Software customers now have the ability to update their treatment planning software at www.cmsrtp.com/updates. The service, which requires a username and password, offers an easy, more efficient method to improve software performance.
“Our support team is available to help with the update process. Should customers need additional assistance, simply contact your customer support team for guidance or advice,” says David L. Murphy, Director, Marketing and Communications, Radiation Treatment Planning Software. The first update will be to improve performance when editing MLC leaves, or the MLC contour in Teletherapy.
On logged in, you will see a complete list of current updates by release. To begin, click the one you would like for your download. To ensure the most current updates at every workstation, you can download directly to your treatment planning system or to a CD, memory stick or external hard drive and load it on each treatment planning system computer.
“Now, you can have performance improvements more frequently and downloaded with ease,” continues Murphy. “At Elekta CMS Software, our dedication and commitment to your performance is our first priority.”
Software updates will be added on a regular basis at www.cmsrtp.com/updates.
Radiotherapy, the treatment of cancer with radiation, is a very important element of curative treatment for cancer, and is also important for maintaining and/or improving patients’ quality of life. It is anticipated that it will retain a key role in cancer treatment for the next 10-20 years and will continue to make a significant contribution to improved treatment and palliative outcomes.
Radiotherapy owes its pre-eminent position in the treatment of cancer to its ability to deliver, with precision, a lethal radiation dose to each cancer cell situated within a chosen area of the body. The main aim of treatment is to give a sufficient radiation dose to the tumor to cause destruction without producing unacceptable damage to surrounding normal tissue. The higher the differential between the dose to the tumor and that received by the normal tissue, the better the chance of a cure. This high differential hinges on the precision with which the size and position of the tumor can be ascertained and, equally importantly, on the accuracy with which the required dose of radiation can be delivered to the chosen site. Radiation can be delivered in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of the cancer. The most commonly used method is called external beam therapy, which directs high energy X-ray radiation at the tumor. Although the radiation affects both cancer and normal cells, because of the nature of the cancer cells it has a greater effect on them. Treatment aimed at cure will give the highest possible dose of radiation, within safe limits, to attempt to kill all the cancer cells. Sometimes smaller doses are used, where the aim is to reduce the size of a tumor and/or relieve symptoms. Radiotherapy treatment is given using either a machine called a linear accelerator or, for some skin tumors, a superficial X-ray unit. To receive the radiotherapy, the patient lies on a couch under the machine, and is asked to remain still during the actual treatment. Every course of radiotherapy treatment is designed to suit the particular needs of the person receiving it, so prior to treatment the patient will make a preliminary visit to the hospital for the course of treatment planned. A typical treatment will last six weeks, with the patient visiting the hospital every day.
The Elekta Synergy with VMAT Animation
Axial dose distribution & Sagittal dose distribution
Deliver a higher dose to the prostate while sparing or minimizing the dose to the rectum, in an effort to reduce or eliminate acute and delayed rectal morbidity. Total session time, including patient positioning, ultrasound-guided targeting, and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) delivery should not exceed 30 minutes, maintaining the existing patient load. Rationale for IMRT approach Radiotherapy planning with PrecisePLAN® IMRT at United Radiation Oncology (URO) demonstrates a considerable decrease in radiation dose to the rectum.
Patient selection
Patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and referred to URO receive an initial consultation,consisting of history, physical exam, psychosocial assessment and discussion of treatment options. Candidates for IMRT are those patients with adverse prognostic factors, whose outcome may improve in response to dose escalation.Adequate localization of the prostate via ultrasound is critical, therefore the patient must be able to drink sufficient fluid to fill the bladder.
Read more on this Prostate Cancer Case Study
Patient history and diagnosis
88-year-old woman with an unresectable pancreatic cancer. The patient complained of generalized weakness, early satiety, decreased appetite and back pain. A CT scan demonstrated a 3.2 x 3.2cm hypodense soft tissue mass causing distortion of the head of the pancreas and the uccinate process. There was marked dilatation of the apancreatic duct. There was 1.9 x 1.7cm low density retroperitoneal lymph node and a second 1.1cm aortocaval lymph nodes. An endoscopic ultrasound with fine needle aspiration confirmed malignant cells consistent with adenocarcinoma of a pancreaticobiliary primary. The patient was treated with a single course of gemcitabine chemotherapy and then concurrent radiotherapy and xeloda.
2D dose distribution for the VMAT plan
The patient had a long standing diagnosis of myelodysplastic syndrome, but had been quite healthy otherwise. Just prior to her diagnosis, the patient was living by herself.
Treatment planning
As a first step in creating the VMAT plan, an IMRT optimization was performed. 18 equispaced beams were used in this optimization. Next, a home-grown arc-sequencing algorithm was used to translate the optimized fluence maps into a deliverable single-arc VMAT plan. A total of 90 control points were used. To ensure the deliverability and accuracy of the VMAT plan, the maximum MLC leaf motion between adjacent control points was set to be 2.5cm per degree of gantry rotation. The resulting VMAT plan was loaded into the Philips Pinnacle3® treatment planning system for a final dose calculation and plan evaluation.
Read more of this VMAT Case Study here
Teletherapy – Radiation delivered at a distance. cf. Brachytherapy where radiation is delivered locally by a source in contact with the patient. Cobalt 60 and linear accelerators are teletherapy machines.
Therapeutic – Curative
Tomography – Any of several techniques for making detailed x-rays of a predetermined plane section of a solid object.
Total Body Irradiation (TBI) – A radiotherapy treatment performed for some leukemia conditions. May involve the removal and replacement of the patient’s bone marrow after extra-corporeal irradiation.
Treatment planning – The act of producing a treatment plan. Can be performed by hand or by computer. Computers can produce plans from data derived from CT and MRI machines allowing the generation of 2-D, 2.5-D and 3-D plans.
Treatment volume – The three dimensional region within a body to which the prescribed dose is delivered.
Trigeminal nerve – The trigeminal nerve functions both as the chief nerve of sensation for the face and the motor nerve controlling the muscles of mastication (chewing).
Tumor – Mass of tissue formed by a new growth of cells, can be either benign or malignant.
- Largest Neurosurgical Center in Russia Acquires Elekta’s Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion February 6, 2012Russia’s first Leksell Gamma Knife® Perfexion™ system has found a home at the renowned N.N. Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute, just a five-minute car ride from Moscow’s Red Square. On June 2, 2011, a 59-year-old woman was the first Perfexion patient, receiving Gamma Knife® radiosurgery to treat tumor tissue that remained following open surgery. Now, eight mon […]
- Largest Neurosurgical Center in Russia Acquires Elekta’s Leksell Gamma Knife Perfexion February 6, 2012N.N. Burdenko Neurosurgical Institute improves treatment of patients with multiple metastasesRead more... […]
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- IMRT / VMAT January 31, 2012Mannheim22-23 November - 2012 […]
- IGRT January 31, 2012Amsterdam16-17 November - 2012 […]
- SBRT January 31, 2012Wake Forest, North Carolina18-19 October - 2012 […]
- IGRT January 31, 2012Amsterdam29-30 June - 2012 […]
- IMRT / VMAT January 31, 2012Mannheim21-22 June - 2012 […]
- Mosaiq® - Electronic Medical Records January 31, 2012Mannheim18-19 June - 2012 […]