New Gated Radiotherapy Technology Has Advanced Motion Management

A set of sophisticated new tools now enables clinicians to monitor and adjust for tumor motion during treatment, and to utilize respiratory gating during a RapidArc treatment.

"Extensive research and development into motion management systems has culminated in powerful new capabilities that will be standard on the new Trilogy accelerators and available as an upgrade on our large installed base of Trilogy and Clinac iX machines,” said Dow Wilson, president of Varian Medical Systems' (Palo Alto , CA, USA) oncology systems business. "Our Clinac iX and Trilogy accelerators together with our new TrueBeam platform can now offer clinics an unmatched combination of motion management, speed, and versatility."

Gated RapidArc radiotherapy makes it possible to monitor patient breathing and compensate for tumor motion while quickly delivering dose during a continuous rotation around the patient. This development enables the use of RapidArc to target lung tumors with greater precision by "gating” the beam--turning it on and off--in response to tumor motion. "With the new Gated RapidArc, it is possible to deliver highly targeted treatments to many types of tumors, including lung tumors that are moving, in less time than would otherwise be required,” said Mr. Wilson.

The new Trilogy system also incorporates an open interface that can be used with positioning devices such as the Calypso Medical (Seattle, WA, USA) system, allowing clinicians to monitor tumors in real time, gate the beam if the tumor moves outside of a pre-defined area, and make targeting adjustments when necessary. Varian and Calypso have been developing this capability under a strategic agreement to produce jointly products that integrate the two companies' technologies. "A recent peer-reviewed study [by H.M. Sandler, et al, and published in the May 2010 issue of the journal Urology] shows that gating the beam and repositioning the patient on the basis of signals from Calypso implanted transponders results in a significant reduction in patient reported side effects when delivering prostate cancer radiotherapy in the presence of tumor motion. Our new interface automates this process,” said Corey Zankowski, Varian's senior director of product management.

The motion management interface can also be used with surface imaging technologies from companies such as Vision RT to position the patient, to monitor continuously for any movement, and to gate the treatment beam either as a result of detected patient motion or according to the patient's breathing cycle.

The interface also opens the door for other third party companies to connect their devices to Varian accelerators for the purpose of monitoring motion. These capabilities are of particular importance during frameless radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) treatments. "Varian is committed to the continual development of an open architecture that makes it possible to interface with third-party technologies for the advancement of clinical care,” Mr. Zankowski added. "By working with other companies, we can offer clinics different methods for gathering and acting upon real-time information about tumor position during treatment.”

The Trilogy accelerator with gated RapidArc and advanced motion management is available to customers now. There are more than 1,600 Varian Clinac iX and Trilogy accelerators installed worldwide, eligible for upgrade with these new technologies.

"We anticipate that these enhancements will bring us another step closer to our mission of helping to save another 100,000 lives each year,” Mr. Wilson said. "Along with the new TrueBeam system that we introduced for oncology thought leaders interested in pioneering new approaches to cancer treatment, we now have the widest spectrum of advanced treatment solutions to meet the needs of our very diverse customers around the world.”

Related Links:
Varian Medical Systems
Calypso Medical