Radiotherapy Technology Adapts Treatment and Therapy Planning to Anatomic Changes

Using new radiotherapy technology, treatment plans for radiotherapy can be adapted quickly to changes in the shape and position of tumors. The treatment plan is revised even while the patient is still lying on the treatment table. This means that the radiation fields and dose are recalculated directly before the next fraction is irradiated.

With the IM-RealART radiotherapy system, Siemens Healthcare (Erlangen, Germany) developed a new solution for especially fast replanning of treatment plans in adaptive radiotherapy. The solution includes the Siemens products Artiste Solution (linear accelerator), 550TxT treatment table, CTVision system for diagnostic computed tomography (CT) imaging, and the RealART planning system from Prowess, Inc. (Chico, CA, USA).

One of the special advantages of IM-RealART is CTVision. Using this system, excellent "gold standard” images of tumors can be taken directly in the treatment room using a CT scanner running on rails. While the patient lies immobilized on the treatment table, the current scans are compared to the original ones on which the treatment planning was based and evaluated.

If the shape of the tumor has changed, the treatment plan can be adapted immediately in order to correct the shape of the treatment radiation field as well as the dose. This recalculation is typically performed in just seven minutes. Since the patient's position is not changed during this period, it is possible to irradiate the tumor with high precision. Using the 160MLC multileaf collimator from Siemens, the radiation field can be confined to the tumor very precisely, thus saving the surrounding tissue.

IM-RealART can be combined with the Siemens IM-Confident Plan, which consists of Artiste with the 160MLC and an intelligent irradiation planning software. These components help reduce the treatment time required for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to five minutes or even less.

IM-RealART and IM-Confident make the daily workflows in radio-oncology much simpler and more efficient while enabling high-precision patient treatment. Using innovative technologies, the tumor is irradiated with pinpoint accuracy while the latest software and imaging ensure that planning, replanning, and therapy all proceed as swiftly as possible.

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Siemens Healthcare
Prowess