Although image-guided radiation treatment is a highly accurate method of treating cancer, it has several disadvantages. One of these is the potential for tumors to migrate while being treated. Tumors can migrate as a result of a patient's breathing and other natural activities. As a result, this method isn't always as precise as it could be. Dynamic Targeting(r) IGRT, a Varian Medical Systems system, is specifically used by Advocate Health Care to help deliver a more accurate therapy.
Real-time adaptive conformal radiation systems are a new advancement in cancer treatment (RTACCS). A doctor can use RTACCS to arrange radiation therapy based on the pelvic or torso mobility of a patient. These new techniques make it possible to deliver radiation with greater accuracy, which lowers the likelihood of recurrence and toxicity. These systems can target more tumors with fewer fractions, which can assist shorten the overall treatment duration in addition to enabling more precise dosage distribution.
Choosing the right type of treatment for a patient's particular tumor is the first step in creating such a system. Five elements make up real-time adaptive conformal radiation systems: the patient, the treatment volume, the physicist, and the equipment. The objective is to minimize dosages to healthy organs in order to optimize patient response. They are therefore more effective than standard CT-based radiation therapy. The majority of patients, the researchers discovered, are ineligible for ART because their tumor size has changed.
The use of imaging to direct treatment is emphasized by the current radiation therapy paradigm. However, port films, anatomic surface markers, and radiologic correlation are used in conventional radiation approaches to plan treatment. Contrarily, advanced imaging methods gather three-dimensional (3D) structural and biologic data and enable exact therapy planning. Unfortunately, this strategy may actually make more issues than it resolves. Therefore, prior to using image-guided radiation, it is crucial to recognize its limits.
Despite being a key area of interest for the radiation oncology community, image-guided radiotherapy systems are still in their infancy. Robust registration and precise autosegmentation remain major obstacles. Additionally, the design of a patient's treatment must take into consideration interfractional changes in respiratory motion. In addition, respiratory-correlated imaging, which links target motion with breathing, has to be improved in image-guided radiation therapy.
Systems for image-guided radiation have many benefits. The technique can be used to account for variations in internal anatomy that may happen during a treatment, reducing the quantity of radiation a patient must get. Denis Keefe, one of those patients, received treatment with this method and is presently a participant in a clinical trial. He had a little tumor, but congestive heart failure was affecting him.
Using image-guided radiation equipment, clinicians may make their treatment plans more precise. By improving the targeted area's precision, the treatment volume can be decreased and the treatment schedule can be compressed. Because of better tumor management, patients may also have reduced toxicity after radiation. Clinical trials can also benefit from these new technologies. Additionally, images can enhance how data from upcoming studies are interpreted. This kind of imaging technology has revolutionized the treatment of cancer.
To give doses to malignancies, image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) is used. Since it can lower the safety margin and enable frameless radiosurgery of lung and brain cancers, this method is excellent for treating head and neck tumors. Although CBCT-based guidance has some drawbacks, it is a good alternative for treating head and neck cancers. Although less effective for treating abdominal malignancies due to its motion-insensitive nature, breath-hold technology nevertheless makes this conceivable.
MRI guidance on linac has a number of advantages in addition to providing tumor-specific dosages. First off, the requirement for implanted markers is removed by the constant visualization of the tumor during beam delivery. Second, it lessens the danger of excessive doses reaching vital tissues near to the tumor. Third, MRI guiding on linac offers better tumor coverage. Any SBRT application must have the system.
