Tuesday, November 3, 2009
TomoMobile Radiation Therapy System on Wheels
TomoTherapy of Madison, WI, recently announced that the company has developed the world's first mobile radiation therapy system to bring cancer treatment to places otherwise underserved or to help clinics provide service while undergoing remodeling or during a facility relocation. The first customer is Artesian Cancer Centers out of Oklahoma that will be using the TomoMobile™ system while their new building in Muskogee is being built.
The TomoTherapy treatment system is ideally suited for placement in a mobile or relocatable environment because of a relatively compact profile that integrates imaging and delivery systems into a single, enclosed unit. The ring gantry design of the TomoTherapy system offers the same look and similar footprint of traditional computed tomography (CT) scanners, which are often deployed as mobile units. In addition, because of the TomoTherapy unit's standard integral primary beam stop and extensive radiation head shielding, radiation leakage is reduced so that the further shielding required in the trailer is transportable.The TomoTherapy platform also includes a treatment planning system, CT-based image guidance with automatic registration, automated machine and patient quality assurance tools and two versatile radiation delivery modalities for treating common, complex and rare cancers throughout the body.
Press release: TomoTherapy Launches TomoMobile™ Relocatable Radiation Therapy Solution ...
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009
TomoHD, a New Radiotherapy System from TomoTherapy
TomoTherapy out of Madison, Wisconsin is releasing a new radiation oncology device at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in Chicago next week. The company touts its TomoHD as an all-purpose radiation therapy system that packs lots of useful clinical and operational features:
The TomoHD treatment system combines TomoHelicalSM and TomoDirectSM delivery modes. The TomoHelical technique affords continuous 360-degree delivery for gold-standard treatment quality and targeting of complex volumes. The TomoDirect modality—introduced in 2008—offers a discrete-angle delivery option, with 3D conformal radiation therapy (3DCRT) capabilities, for highly efficient treatment of more routine indications. In both delivery modes, clinicians follow the same basic process for planning, imaging and treating targets of up to 160 cm in length with no need to reposition the patient and no need for field junctioning. In addition to extended delivery versatility, the TomoHD treatment system comes complete with 1, 2.5 and 5 cm primary collimator settings that enable users to select the right beam slice width for each case, depending upon conformity and efficiency needs.The TomoHD treatment system also includes large touch-screen Positioning Control Panels (PCPs), which allow for high-fidelity positioning adjustments of 0.1 mm in X, Y and Z directions, and a hands-free patient unload feature. The TomoHD system also integrates many infrastructure advances to maximize uptime and operational efficiency.
To aid workflow, the TomoHD system includes 14 blade computing power, which facilitates simultaneous optimization of multiple treatment plans—at twice the speed of the Hi·Art treatment system’s standard configuration.
Press release: New TomoHD™ System Expands Ability to Treat Patient Population with Single Radiotherapy System...
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Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Varian's New Budget Conscious Radiotherapy System
Varian Medical Systems out of Palo Alto, California is releasing a new low energy, and low price, radiotherapy system at this week's 10th Biennial ESTRO Conference on Physics and Radiation Technology for Clinical Radiotherapy. The UNIQUE platform is designed as an entry level system for hospitals wanting to offer radiation oncology or as a replacement for those with older cobalt based systems.
The UNIQUE Performance Edition incorporates all the tools needed to easily establish or enhance a clinically effective radiotherapy treatment operation. The UNIQUE* platform's low energy medical linear accelerator incorporates Varian's proven technologies for reliable and consistent dose control, delivery, and beam shaping, into an elegant machine with patient friendly design that is small enough to fit into almost all existing treatment bunkers. The system is ideally equipped for treating cancers of the head and neck, breast, cervix and prostate, which make up the majority of cases in most areas of the world.Varian will also offer a UNIQUE Power Edition without RapidArc technology or image-guidance software, for centers that prefer to begin with a more basic yet upgradeable platform.
Either package is ideal for treatment centers looking to transition from older cobalt units to modern radiotherapy technology. The small footprint of the UNIQUE accelerator allows it to fit into most small, existing treatment vaults. UNIQUE is not for sale in the U.S., Canada, or Japan.
Press release: Varian unveils UNIQUE radiotherapy offering at ESTRO meeting to make advanced cancer treatments more accessible and affordable...
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Tuesday, July 28, 2009
LINEAC/MRI Combination May Help Target Moving Tumors
Today at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine in Anaheim, California, researchers from the University of Alberta will present a new system for radiation oncology that combines linear accelerator and an MRI machine. The hybrid device allows live viewing of tumor tissue and precise radiation targeting of moving organs, like lungs, prostate, and maybe even the heart. The biggest problem is that the magnet is a permanent type and provides nowhere near the resolution of modern 3 Tesla superconducting ones.
More details from MIT Technology Review:
Until now, it hasn't been possible to use MRI to guide radiotherapy. This is because MRI machines and the linear accelerators that supply high-energy x-rays for radiotherapy interfere with each other. MRI uses a strong magnet and pulses of radio-frequency waves to excite and read a signal from protons in the water molecules inside soft tissues in the body. Medical linear accelerators also use radio-frequency pulses, in their case in order to accelerate electrons through a waveguide toward a metal target. When the electrons hit the target, high-energy x-rays come out the other side; these x-rays are then aimed at tumor tissue. If these two machines are in the same room, the magnetic field from the MRI interferes with the waveguide, preventing the electrons from being accelerated, and the radio-frequency pulses from the linear accelerator interfere with the imager's magnetic field, degrading picture quality.To combine the technologies, the Alberta researchers had to reengineer both components. "The whole machine is designed differently," says Fallone. Special shielding is employed. And instead of using a high-strength magnetic field generated by superconducting-wire coils, as in clinical MRI, the machine uses a weak permanent magnet. The weak magnet interferes much less with the accelerator and is smaller and less expensive to operate. This December, Fallone's group published the results of imaging studies that showed it was possible to generate MRI images while running the linear accelerator without interference.
More from MIT Technology Review...
Abstract from the conference presentation and the presentation slides (.pdf)...
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Brain Surgery With MR Guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound
Performing tumor ablations in the brain can be a very risky venture since getting to the diseased site requires avoiding blood vessels and fragile tissue. Radiation therapy has become a common alternative to going invasive, but it suffers from unnecessary radiation exposure to the patient. High intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), a technology already commonly used for uterine fibroids, has been looked at as a possible alternative for intracranial ablations. Now clinicians at the University Children's Hospital Zurich successfully performed the first transcranial MR guided HIFU procedure.
From the University of Zurich:
The HIFU system ExAblate® 4000, developed by the cooperation partner InSightec, Tirat Carmel Israel, has been combined with a 3 Tesla high field GE MR-scanner. The two systems together provide a platform for image-guided, non-invasive interventions. Since September 2008 ten patients were treated at the Children's Hospital Zurich with this new neurosurgical procedure in the context of a clinical study. All interventions were completed successfully and without complications. This novel technology now opens up new horizons allowing to develop non-invasive intervention procedures for a variety of brain diseases including brain tumors.The whole surgical procedure is planned and monitored in real time by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The HIFU beams produced by 1024 transducers are transferred through the intact skull of the patient into the brain and concentrated onto a focus of 3 to 4 millimeters in diameter. Thus, sharply defined targets deep inside the brain are coagulated by heating them up to a focal temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. The temperature increase during the sequential "sonications", each lasting 10 to 20 seconds, is continuously displayed and controlled on precise MR-temperature distribution maps. The whole surgical procedure lasts several hours and is performed without anaesthesia. Patients are awake and fully conscious during the intervention.
The following video of ExAblate Brain device treatment has been released by the company:
Press release: Successful neurosurgery with transcranial MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound
InSightec's HIFU brain surgery info page...
Flashbacks: FDA Expands Indication for Insightec's Uterine Fibroid System ; Ultrasound That Seals Punctured Lungs; Noninvasive Palliation of Pain of Bone Mets; ExAblate Making Waves in US; ExAblate 2000
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
New Accelerator Technology May Lead to Smaller, More Effective Hadron Therapy
As part of a project to test the potential of Hadron Therapy, which uses high energy particles instead of X-rays to attack tumors, a 20MeV accelerator is being built at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, UK. A big hurdle has been crossed, which will allow the device to be small enough to fit in a room, which should lead to the completion of the accelerator called PAMELA and experiments on tissue can then begin.
The Engineer reports:
The waveguide system, developed by Hertfordshire-based Q-par Angus, will distribute microwave energy to specific points around the accelerator ring.Alex Donnison, a physicist at Q-par Angus, explained that energy from these high-frequency microwaves will be used to energise particles in the accelerator.
The microwaves will be distributed to specific points in the ring through a Q-par Angus developed waveguide-distribution system.
'Waveguide is basically plumbing,' he said. 'It is rectangular sections of open metal and because of the high frequencies it is much more efficient to transfer microwaves in pipes.'
The particles (electrons) will originate from ALICE, another Daresbury Laboratory accelerator.
Donnison said the main challenge for Q-par Angus's microwave engineer, Simon Davis, was designing the system to fit into the accelerator's small size. 'We're not talking about CERN,' he said. 'It fits in a room. It is about 7.59m across.'
More from The Engineer...
Project page: CONFORM - the COnstruction of a Non-scaling FFAG for Oncology, Research and Medicine
Link: Q-par Angus...
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New Oncology Tool Combines MRI Machine and Clinical Particle Accelerator
During the treatment of tumors by radiation therapy, the energy beam is focused on its target using previously acquired imagery. 
Because physicians don't actually see the tumor, which can also be moving as in the case of lungs, the precision is compromised causing a lot of surrounding tissue to be damaged by radiation. Now scientists at University Medical Centre Utrecht designed a system that combines a 1.5 T MRI scanner with a 6 MV accelerator into one package. The group is planning to start clinical trials of the MRI-guided radiation therapy (MRIgRT) system, which, if successful, will undoubtedly become a popular choice in radiation oncology.
From the abstract:
The prototype is a modified 6 MV Elekta (Crawley, UK) accelerator next to a modified 1.5 T Philips Achieva (Best, The Netherlands) MRI system. From the initial design onwards, modifications to both systems were aimed to yield simultaneous and unhampered operation of the MRI and the accelerator. Indeed, the simultaneous operation is shown by performing diagnostic quality 1.5 T MRI with the radiation beam on. No degradation of the performance of either system was found. The integrated 1.5 T MRI system and radiotherapy accelerator allow simultaneous irradiation and MR imaging. The full diagnostic imaging capacities of the MRI can be used; dedicated sequences for MRI-guided radiotherapy treatments will be developed.
Abstract with link to full article: Integrating a 1.5 T MRI scanner with a 6 MV accelerator: proof of concept
Press release by Institute of Physics: Breakthrough in radiotherapy promises targeted cancer treatment...
Images: Top: Sketch of the MRI accelerator concept. The 1.5 T MRI is shown in blue (1), the 6 MV accelerator (2) is located in a ring around the MRI. The split gradient coil (3) is shown in yellow and in orange the superconducting coils (4) are shown. The light blue ring around the MRI indicates the low magnetic field toroid (5) in the fringe field. Side: MRI of a pork chop with and without the radiation beam on.
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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Smaller, Lighter Particle Accelerators May Become Standard in Oncology Wards
Dejan Trbojevic, an accelerator physicist at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, has developed a new design, and submitted a patent application, for compact clinical particle accelerators that should help bring down in price these exceedingly expensive devices. By using smaller magnets to focus the particle beam, it is believed that the gross weight of a clinical accelerator can be reduced by 100 fold, leading to all kinds of savings from initial cost, to installation and maintenance.
Brookhaven reports:
Trbojevic’s design makes use of fixed-field magnets, as opposed to the much larger and more complex variable magnets used at most existing particle-therapy facilities. In this design, the beam is transferred for the whole energy range without the need for any changes in the magnets. Additionally, each of the magnets performs two functions: bending the particle beam along the particle path, and either focusing or defocusing the beam for precision particle delivery.“Protons or carbon ions with a wide range of energies can be transported precisely through the small combined-function magnets,” Trbojevic said. “These magnets provide extremely strong focusing and control of the beam positions.
“Because these magnets are so compact, the weight of the entire gantry can be about 100 times less than it would be with the variable magnet design,” he said. As an example, a 160-ton gantry made from conventional magnets would weigh about 1.5 tons using Trbojevic’s design. Even with equipment needed to keep the superconducting magnets cool, the particle delivery system would still me more compact and economical than existing designs.
Click on video below to start playing a short intro to the technology by Dejan Trbojevic:
Press release: Compact Cancer-Therapy Particle-Delivery System Patented
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Monday, May 4, 2009
Encouraging Results on Use of TomoTherapy in Lung CA Patients
TomoTherapy Inc, a Madison, Wisconsin firm behind the world's first system that integrates CT scanning with Intensity Modulated Radiation, is reporting encouraging results from a study that looked at treatment responses in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The tested group was exposed to escalating doses of radiation in a shorter treatment period, as the press release explains:
The paper, published in Technology in Cancer Research and Treatment (Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2008 Dec;7(6):441-8.)... evaluates a study devised to test the safety of escalating the biologically-effective tumor dose via hypofractionated treatment regimens using 25 fractions over five weeks. Traditionally, radiotherapy is delivered over six to seven weeks, or even longer (sometimes up to 10-11 weeks) if dose-escalation is the goal. A downside to dose escalation in this manner is that tumor repopulation occurs during the prolonged delivery time. Shorter dose-escalated schedules have historically been avoided because of the expectation of severe toxicities. The University of Wisconsin (UW) School of Medicine and Public Health investigators hypothesized that the conformal dose-delivery abilities of TomoTherapy, with helical IMRT and IGRT, would permit safe dose-escalation with shorter schedules, thereby limiting accelerated repopulation, and possibly improving tumor control.According to its authors, the study demonstrates that the use of TomoTherapy technology may allow for higher doses of radiation therapy than are conventionally administered to be delivered over a shorter treatment course, with lower than expected toxicities. Helical TomoTherapy allows for delivery of image-guided, intensity-modulated radiation therapy, permitting conformal delivery of radiotherapy while minimizing the dose delivered to normal tissues.
To understand how the TomoTherapy® Hi·Art® treatment system "integrates optimized planning, image-guidance and helical delivery to provide precise, continuous radiation therapy from all angles around the patient," check out the following company video:
Press release: Encouraging Results Published on Use of TomoTherapy in Lung Cancer Treatment...
TomoTherapy - CT Image-Guided, Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy...
Flashback: TomoTherapy Hi.Art System
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Virtual Radiotherapy Simulator Helps Fight Costs
Using working radiotherapy machines to train residents can be an expensive proposition. Since the devices can cost millions of dollars, time is usually optimized to stream patients through and little remains for training sessions. Vertual Ltd. out of Hull, England is providing a solution that skips over the problem by offering a virtual training simulator for a number of radiotherapy machines.
MTB Europe reports:
VERT was developed by Professor Andy Beavis, Professor Roger Phillips and James Ward in a joint development effort between the University of Hull and Hull & East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.By wearing 3D glasses, VERT allows students to walk around a virtual training room using computer-generated equipment and a hand-held pendant, identical to that of the actual equipment used, to simulate surgery, removing the need for training to be carried out in very expensive radiography treatment suites.
More from MTB Europe...
Demo page with videos of the simulator...
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009
FDA Approves New RFID Radiation Sensors
The FDA has given approval to Sicel Technologies, out of Morrisville, North Carolina, to market company's new generation of RFID radiation sensors for use during radiation therapy. The devices, which are 2 mm in diameter and 18 mm long, are injected into the tumor to send back readings to an external receiver via RFID. The new DVS-HFT dosimeter is capable of accurately measuring higher energy / shorter time radiation burst common in modern devices.
Here's what the device can measure and transmit back:
the actual radiation dose hitting the tumor the uptake and retention of a particular chemotherapeutic agent the temperature during hyperthermia treatment the evaluation of combination therapies, monitoring the effects of chemotherapy and radiation therapy, both individually and together the level of parameters such as pH or oxygen
Device page: Sicel DVS sensor
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Thursday, February 19, 2009
Europe Approves Varian's Proton Therapy System, A Cancer Zipping Cyclotron
Ernest Lawrence, a Berkeley inventor of the cyclotron, would love to hear this story. His invention has not only enriched uranium for The Bomb, but will now be used for clinical applications.
Varian Medical Systems out of Palo Alto, California just received the European CE Mark of approval for the company's Proton Therapy System. Maybe the largest and most expensive medical device, the 250 mega-electron volt proton accelerator requires its own building. The advantage, of course, is the ability to precisely target tumors, as protons have a much shorter and predictable range of energy delivery than photons.
From Varian, here are the components you'll be getting in the package:
Proton accelerator: 250 MeV Superconducting CyclotronThe latest 250 MeV (Mega-electron-Volt) Superconducting Cyclotron is a key component of Varian proton therapy delivery. Stable beam current and beam intensity modulation allow precision spot scanning and three-dimensional proton dose distribution for unprecedented precision.
Improved manufacturing techniques mean that the lightweight, compact size helps reduce the total cost of ownership. In addition, superconducting magnet coils result in high extraction efficiency, low energy consumption, excellent reliability, and an overall reduction in operating costs and maintenance.
Unlike some other accelerators, the superconducting cyclotron, behaves in a very linear and predictable manner. This allows for complete automation and eliminates the need for routine operators.
Beam transport systemThe proton accelerator is connected to one or multiple treatment rooms by the beam transport system (BTS). The BTS is segmented so that additional treatment rooms can be added to the system later, providing scalability to treat more patients as the clinic grows.
A key element of the BTS is the energy selection system (ESS). The ESS transforms the energy of the beam that the cyclotron produces from 250 MeV particles to the desired treatment energy between 250 MeV and 70 MeV. This translates to a possible range of range of 36.5–4.0 cm in water. Range shifters directly in front of the patient can be used to reduce the range to under 4.0 cm.
The ESS is used to set and verify the beam energy and spread to guarantee optimal treatment precision. The ESS is located close to the particle accelerator and outside the treatment rooms. This eliminates neutron production in the treatment room.
The BTS consists of a beam tube under vacuum and with a variety of magnets. Quadruple magnets are used to focus the proton beam and dipole magnets are used to deflect the beam to the selected treatment room. The magnets of the BTS system are tuned automatically by the control system to accommodate the selected treatment room, energy, and size of the beam.
Treatment RoomsVarian's proton therapy delivery system is modular and the number of treatment rooms scalable. It is possible to start with a single-room system that can be expanded to a multi-room facility later. Two types of treatment rooms are available, which can be combined in any desired ratio to match patient demand.
Gantry beam rooms are similar to the Varian® Clinac® and Trilogy™ gantries in which the beam can be fully rotated around the isocenter point. The proton gantry in combination with the treatment table offers the flexibility to select any desired beam angle for optimal beam delivery.
Fixed beam rooms offer a horizontal beam that can be optimized for eye, head, and neck treatments or be combined with a versatile treatment table for a variety of dedicated treatments.
Gantry
A gantry is a steel structure that houses the final section of the BTS and the delivery "nozzle." The gantry rotates around the patient, delivering the beam at the desired angle. The combination of a gantry and treatment table offers the flexibility to treat patients from all angles. The unique mechanical design of the Varian gantry—two large roller bearings for support, balanced with counterweights—provides exceptional mechanical rigidity. The operator can select an angular position with a precision of ± 0.1°.
The Varian proton gantry can be equipped with one of two types of beam delivery systems, also called "nozzles." The nozzle is equipped with motion sensors to help ensure patient safety. Alerts sound if these sensors detect if the gantry nozzle and patient come too close and the motion of the gantry and the table is slowed down. Additional contact sensors are hard-wired to emergency brakes.
Standard table
The treatment table support is located in front of the gantry as an integral part of the gantry enclosure. The treatment table, nozzle contour, and diagnostic equipment positioned close to the patient are optimized to achieve a 4-π treatment-angle range as far as possible. All patient tables are equipped with six numerically controlled axes, and bending due to patient weight will be automatically detected and corrected.
Press release: Varian Medical Systems Has Received CE Mark for Proton Therapy System
Product info page: Proton Therapy
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Patent Granted for Next Generation of Proton Therapy Machines
A group of physicists from Brookhaven National Laboratory have been awarded a patent for a new medical synchrotron design that promises to deliver proton beam therapy with a tighter, more precise beam using a smaller machine at lower cost.
From Brookhaven NL:
The new accelerator design developed by the Brookhaven team offers two main advantages: “rapid cycling” and “strong focusing.”Rapid cycling allows proton beams to be injected and extracted from the synchrotron in just one turn around the circular particle accelerator. Unlike the earlier machines, which required multiple turns, this eliminates the need for sensitive feedback systems to control the beam currents.
“This makes the machine more robust and reliable to operate. It’s more of a turn-key operation,” Peggs said. “Turn it on and it consistently starts up like a transformer, rather than booting up like a PC.”
Strong focusing refers to the ability to shape the proton beam and keep it focused to pinpoint dimensions. In contrast to the Loma Linda machine, where beams measure up to a centimeter across, the new design can achieve beams as narrow as one millimeter.
Pinpoint accuracy reduces collateral damage and allows physicians more flexibility in the doses they use. Higher doses could yield more effective therapy, possibly in fewer treatments.
Compact beam size has other benefits as well: smaller components (beam pipes, magnets, etc.) for the whole device. That makes everything lighter, and less expensive, Peggs said. Smaller size will also eliminate the need for water-cooling most magnets; air-cooling will be sufficient. That adds up to even more cost savings.
Press release: Physicists Receive Patent for Improved Cancer Therapy Device ...
Patent: Rapid cycling medical synchrotron and beam delivery system...
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Monday, November 24, 2008
Oncentra RT Viewer Wins US Approval
Nucletron out of Veenendaal, The Netherlands has received FDA approval for the company's unified system for reviewing radiotherapy plans "generated with a wide variety of DICOM-compliant treatment planning systems in a Windows (PC) environment."
From the press release:
“Oncentra® RT Viewer has several robust features that enable clinicians to work more efficiently in a digital environment,” said Bill Dowd, Nucletron’s vice president for North America. “The application puts powerful tools in the hands of clinicians during the treatment planning stage. Oncentra RT Viewer powers true interoperability between planning facilities regardless of treatment plan origin. This is a novel and exciting development for radiation treatment workflow. ”Oncentra RT Viewer makes it possible to review and share treatment planning data such as DICOM RT images, RT structure sets, RT plans including RT dose on any computer, making it an optimal tool for clinical consulting and peer-to-peer reviewing. Oncentra RT Viewer is a technologically advanced alternative to hardcopy paper information for reviewing and sharing treatment planning data, and utilizes the hospital network for sharing plans digitally, as well as on any other electronic sharing device.
Press release: Nucletron Receives 510(k) Clearance for Oncentra® RT Viewer ...
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Tuesday, October 28, 2008
TargetScan Aims for Precise Brachytherapy
Envisioneering Medical Technologies, a St. Louis, MO firm, recently released its advanced ultrasound imaging and brachytherapy placement device for treatment of prostate cancer.
From the press release:
Just launched, the system will initially be in clinical use at Emory, Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, University of Florida and New Hanover Radiation Oncology.The system is based on the TargetScan® technology platform developed by Envisioneering Medical Technologies in St. Louis, under the guidance of physicians at Washington University. “Traditional hand-manipulated devices allow the prostate gland to shift, which impedes placement accuracy. By stabilizing the prostate, physicians can now implant seeds to any and every region of the gland with greater confidence,” said Robert Mills, president, Envisioneering Medical Technologies.
TargetScan Touch Technical Features:
Motionless probe to prevent prostate movement and on-screen image distortion. Mapping technology for complete prostatic coverage, assisting with accurate needle placement to pre-planned cancer targets and preferred treatment zones 3-D image acquisition to improve visibility, presenting both sagittal and transverse planes with a total viewing volume of 380 mL. Touch-screen technology to improve treatment efficiency and patient experience.
Here's a company video introducing the TargetScan...
Press release: Technology Designed to Confirm Precise Brachytherapy Treatment...
Product page: TargetScan Touch 3D Ultrasound System
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Automatic Feature Recognition for Radiotherapy
Varian Medical, of Palo Alto, California, just announced it received 501(k) clearance from the FDA for its new software to automatically detect features within the thorax and male pelvis in diagnostic images, used in preparation for radiotherapy treatment.
The new Smart Segmentation™ feature, which has been added to Varian's Eclipse™ treatment planning product, is the world's first fully automatic tool that uses intelligent software to identify and outline organs and other structures within diagnostic images of the thorax and male pelvis. Up to now, identifying structures to be irradiated or protected during radiotherapy treatments had to be done by hand."Contouring is an essential and time-consuming step in radiotherapy treatment planning," said Jeff Amacker, business manager for treatment planning systems. "Now, with Smart Segmentation, we can increase treatment plan efficiency by about 30-40 percent."
The Smart Segmentation tool can automatically identify all of the structures of interest in less than 45 seconds. Clinicians can now start the planning process with images that have important anatomical structures already outlined, and simply adjust them according to their clinical judgment. "It's similar to building a house from scratch or remodeling," Amacker said. "Remodeling is generally much faster because you have something to work from."
Varian's Eclipse treatment planning product is a versatile tool that enables clinicians to plan a wide array of radiation therapy treatments including intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), brachytherapy, and proton therapy.
Press release: FDA 510(k) Clearance for Smart Segmentation™ Tool...
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Thursday, May 24, 2007
SenoRx Crosses Hurdle for Multi-Lumen Breast Irradiation
There's a new option in balloon-implanted radiation delivery devices for breast cancer patients. The FDA has just allowed SenoRX to market its post-lumpectomy radiotherapy device in the US. From Reuters:
SenoRX said it plans to ship the Multi-Lumen Radiation Balloon Applicator, which is the only multi-lumen balloon device approved for brachytherapy following breast cancer surgery, for post-clearance human clinical trials in the second half of this year, with a full launch expected in early 2008."The approval came at least a month, if not two months, earlier than our expectations. This is a positive event and frankly a favorable timing of the event," Jason Mills, an analyst with Canaccord Adams, said by phone....
...The device is used to provide radiation treatment following lumpectomy for breast cancer. The radiation balloon uses vacuum to remove excess fluid and to adhere closely to often irregularly shaped lumpectomy cavities to deliver precise radiation dosing through multiple seed lumens.
Here's some lofty language from a SenoRX spokesperson:
"We are excited at the prospect that our radiation balloon product may actually expand the balloon market," said Lloyd Malchow, SenoRx President and Chief Executive Officer. "Certain patients who are presently candidates for balloon therapy are currently excluded because of the location of the lesion relative to their breast size. Our multi-lumen approach offers a solution to this problem."
More from SenoRx...
Flashback: Cytyc's already-approved Mammosite, which is a single-lumen radiation delivery device.
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Monday, December 5, 2005
New Ways to Zap Prostate CA
A trio of innovations to treat prostate CA is being touted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison:
Directionally emitting radioactive sources, a device for placing needles and seeds, and a super-fast treatment-planning method were developed by UW-Madison engineering physics professor Douglass Henderson and medical physics associate professor Bruce Thomadsen.To eradicate diseased tissue, physicians implant up to 100 radioactive seeds in the prostate. Like a tiny grain of rice, each seed is cylindrically shaped and emits radiation in all directions-increasing its likelihood of zapping healthy tissue, too.
So, borrowing a concept from nuclear materials handling, Henderson and Thomadsen designed directional seeds-sources with vertical shielding along one side. "I think nobody's done it before because they look at these sources, which are only eight-tenths of a millimeter in outer diameter, and they say there isn't enough space to put shielding," says Thomadsen. "We found you can compress things and you can do it."
As a result, they can implant seeds, particularly at the boundaries between healthy and diseased tissue, that steer radiation where it's needed most.
With graduate student Liong Lin, the two developed prototypes and conducted successful radiation simulations. Now they are working with a leading brachytherapy products company to develop experimental prototypes. To keep the seeds from rotating once they're implanted, the group also hopes to modify their design to incorporate a wedge-shaped anchor along one vertical side.
Implanting the seeds accurately is no small feat. With a hole-studded grid mounted over the patient as a guide, physicians use a hollow needle to insert the seeds manually. They rely on real-time ultrasound images of the prostate to ensure proper seed location and depth. But both the confines of the grid and the ultrasound itself limit the process, meaning that the radioactive seeds may not make it to the correct locations, says Thomadsen. So he and his graduate students abandoned the grid and built a robot that could deliver seeds more precisely than a physician could by hand.
Graduate student Michael Meltsner built a prototype robot and has perfected it by programming it to implant seeds into oranges. "It's a really basic prototype, and he's at the point where we have to test to make sure that, in the simple form we have, it's going to perform exactly how we want," says Thomadsen.
By next year, when the system is complete, it will provide countless angles for inserting seeds and will enable physicians to properly orient seeds that contain shielding.
To plan the seed placement for maximum effectiveness, physicians currently map an ultrasound view of the prostate on a 3-D grid, use optimization software to calculate several sets of possible seed locations, and determine which configuration will work best. But current optimization methods are iterative methods-that is, they calculate a solution, make a change, calculate a new solution, make a change, and so on.
Inspired by a reactor physics technique called adjoint, or "backward" transport, Henderson, Thomadsen and their graduate students developed a method that could reduce the time of this treatment-planning step from as long as 40 minutes to just a few seconds. "The adjoint function plays a big role in the selection of the seed position," says Henderson.
The press release...
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