Imaging Center Expands Services with IGRT

April 14, 2010 - A diagnostic imaging center expands its services to offer image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and integrates TomoTherapy technology into its workflow.

With the only linear accelerator installed in the Valle d’Aosta region, Ospedale Regionale Umberto Parini installed the Hi·Art treatment system, which features TomoHelical and TomoDirect delivery capabilities.

The system will allow clinicians to acquire a low-dose helical CT image prior to each daily treatment, to help ensure precise patient positioning based on internal anatomy. Then, using the same equipment as used in imaging, the treatment team can deliver radiation in a continuous, 360-degree pattern using the TomoHelical delivery mode. The TomoDirect delivery mode facilitates a non-rotational delivery option that enables clinicians to quickly plan and deliver advanced TomoTherapy radiation treatments with a series of linear beam paths, rather than a single helical delivery path, thereby improving efficiency in the treatment of more routine cancer cases.

One common database is used throughout the TomoTherapy workflow, from treatment planning and optimization, to image guidance and treatment delivery, to record and verify.

The planning workstation, operator console, treatment unit itself and a computing cluster are each connected to the database. Because treatment plans are saved to this central database, from where the radiation delivery system reads and carries out the instructions for beam production and collimation. As a result, the operator does not need to control the transfer of treatment data. This is designed to minimize the risk of data corruption and loss.

For more information: www.tomotherapy.com