Ipswich Hospital pilots image-guided radiotherapy to improve breast
cancer treatment
23 June 2006 Ipswich, England. Breast cancer patients at Ipswich
Hospital NHS Trust are among the first in the country to participate in a
study to test image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), which enables clinicians to
obtain better images of the cancer site at the time of treatment and track
and adjust for tumour motion caused by the patient.
Clinicians at the hospital are using a new On-Board Imager device from
Varian Medical Systems to better image the post-lumpectomy breast for
radiotherapy.
“The normal procedure has been to treat the whole breast after a lump has
been surgically removed, to make sure any remaining cancerous cells are
destroyed,” says Andrew Poynter, Cancer Research Lead at Ipswich Hospital.
“Using this new procedure, we implant gold marker seeds in the breast cavity
following the surgical excision and we use the On-Board Imager to match the
position of these markers at every treatment. This will allow us to match
the radiation dose delivered to where there’s the highest risk of
recurrence. It’s tailored radiotherapy which some people have dubbed
‘risk-adaptive radiotherapy’. Our initial experiences have been very
encouraging.” The On-Board Imager makes it possible for clinicians to
image and treat on a single machine that rotates around the patient to take
X-ray images and deliver treatments from virtually any angle. Mounted on the
medical linear accelerator, the On-Board Imager device produces
high-resolution images of the tumour and tracks changes in tumour shape,
size or position over a multi-week course of treatment. It also enables
clinicians to track and adjust for tumour motion caused by the patient’s
breathing. This work at Ipswich forms part of a pilot study led by
Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, which is examining the feasibility of
using IGRT for post-lumpectomy breast cancer patients. The pilot study will
provide vital data for a national, multi-centre trial called ‘Import High’
led by Professor John Yarnold at the Institute for Cancer Research. This
trial aims to test risk-adapted and partial breast radiotherapy treatment in
patients at a high risk of local tumour recurrence. Using the On-Board
Imager, Ipswich is currently the only hospital taking part in the trial that
is able to take daily X-ray snapshots using kilovoltage imaging, which means
patients receive higher quality images at much lower doses than with
megavoltage imaging. To top |