Novalis® Shaped Beam Surgery

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia has released a press report announcing that a group of its clinicians “for the first time wrapped beams of radiation around a patient’s spine, relieving pain from several cancerous tumors there while avoiding the spinal cord.”
The technology used was Novalis® shaped beam surgery from BrainLAB AG.
Company describes its stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy system:

Novalis Body features image-guided radiosurgery for high precision treatment of body targets. Its X-ray-based localization technology allows physicians to localize tumors with sub-millimeter accuracy and to position patients automatically and with a higher degree of precision than previously possible. With Novalis Body dose escalation protocols and SRT treatments for spine, lung, liver and other body lesions can be carried out quickly and efficiently…
At the core of the system is a beam shaping device with fine 3mm central leaves that allows Novalis to accurately mirror the contour of the tumor from any angle. This innovative and effective treatment is called ‘Shaped Beam Surgery’…
Complete integration makes Novalis Body the perfect system for performing safe Dynamic Conformal Arc treatments: By rotating around the patient, the system can continuously deliver radiation, constantly adapting the shape of the beam to the contour of the lesion.
The Advanced Dynamic Conformal Arc offers the following treatment features with BrainLAB’s Dynamic Shaped Beam Surgery:
— extremely fast and automatic treatment planning completed within minutes
— extremely fast dose delivery of only 3-4 arcs within 15-20 minutes
reduced dose to healthy tissue as the delivered dose is distributed to a much larger volume compared to conformal beam treatments.
High resolution Intensity Modulated RadioSurgery® (IMRS) treatment results in improved outcomes and better quality of life for many patients compared to treatments based on conventional planning and dose delivery.

More here…