ORLANDO, Fla., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- At M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, cancer patients suffering from tumors obstructed by respiratory movement can now benefit from more precise Image-Guided Radiotherapy treatment with BrainLAB’s Adaptive Respiratory Gating system. M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando is one of the first sites in the United States to treat a lung tumor patient using the technology, which enables physicians to target tumors by adjusting to the patient’s breathing patterns within a millimeter of accuracy.
“When treating oncology patients with radiotherapy, the goal is to destroy the cancerous cells without causing undue harm to the rest of the body,” said Dr. Alan R. Forbes, radiation oncologist at M. D. Anderson - Orlando. “We have used the BrainLAB gating system for more than 300 treatments in the first five months. The system’s capabilities have allowed us to target precisely the affected tissue by accommodating for the tumor movement caused by breathing. We are able to spare the surrounding healthy tissue with a high degree of confidence.”
The new technology overcomes treatment limitations caused by breathing- induced tumor motion in three steps. First, the gating system synchronizes tumor motion with the patient’s breathing pattern by acquiring multiple pictures taken of the tumor inside the lung. From the images, the three-dimensional movement of the tumor is captured and its exact location for treatment delivery is calculated. Finally, the technology delivers radiation only when the tumor is exactly in the path of the treatment beam. If the tumor moves out of the treatment beam, the radiation is automatically interrupted to protect the patient’s healthy tissue.
For patients with lung and liver tumors, this means more effective treatment and fewer complications from side effects like fatigue and shortness of breath.
“When the doctor told me about targeting only the tumor and not the entire lung, I definitely thought it was a good idea,” said Larry Quinn, a 70-year- old Orlando resident and the second person to be treated with BrainLAB’s Adaptive Respiratory Gating system. Quinn can now breathe easier as he looks forward to spending days to come reading to his grandchildren and spending time with his wife and other family members.
“The introduction of Adaptive Gating is a complement to BrainLAB’s ExacTrac(R) X-Ray 6D Image-Guided Radiation Therapy technology, which utilizes high-resolution x-ray imaging combined with infrared tracking,” said Mark Bruseski, Director of Radiosurgery - BrainLAB Inc. “The technology is clinically established in over 60 leading sites worldwide allowing them to position the patient with millimeter accuracy and make adjustments seconds before treatment. Maintaining its standing as a leader in the industry, Adaptive Gating allows ExacTrac X-Ray 6D to go one step further to precisely position the patient for treatment of lesions in areas such as the liver and lung where movement of the lesion is a result of patient breathing.”
About M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando
M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Orlando, part of Orlando Regional Healthcare, is affiliated with The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. U.S. News & World Report ranked M. D. Anderson Cancer Center one of the top two cancer facilities in the nation for 2005 and has done so for the past 16 years. Orlando Regional, a 1,652-bed community-owned, Florida not-for-profit organization established in 1918, annually serves more than 640,000 Central Florida residents and 4,500 international patients. More information is available at http://www.mdandersonorlando.org .
About BrainLAB
BrainLAB, a privately held company headquartered in Munich, Germany, was founded in 1989 and is specialized in the development, manufacture, and marketing of medical technology for radiosurgery / radiotherapy, orthopedics, neurosurgery, and ENT. Among the products developed by BrainLAB are software and hardware components for image-guided surgery and radiotherapy as well as integrated systems for stereotactic radiosurgery. With almost 1,680 systems installed in over 65 countries, BrainLAB is among the market leaders in image-guided medical technology. BrainLAB today employs more than 670 people worldwide and has 15 offices across Europe, Asia, North and South America.
For more information, visit BrainLAB at http://www.brainlab.com .
BrainLAB
CONTACT: Christine S. Martinez, +1-321-843-1343,Christine.Martinez@orhs.org , or Gabriella Cyranski of BrainLAB Inc.,+1-708-486-0114, cyranski@brainlab.com