CONTACT: Jason
R. Baran
Public
Relations Specialist
(732)
557-3909 |
, -
Treating cancer like a moving target is the premise behind
the latest breakthrough in radiotherapy recently unveiled at
the Leon Hess Cancer Center at Monmouth Medical Center.
The introduction of image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) at
Monmouth’s Institute for Advanced Radiation Oncology allows
for the pinpoint targeting of cancerous cells, despite tumor
motion caused by a patient’s breathing, movement or positioning
during treatment.
“The problem of a tumor moving over a four- to six-week
course of daily radiation treatments has been an obstacle in
effectively targeting cancer treatment — until now,” says
Mitchell Weiss, M.D., chairman of radiation oncology at the Leon
Hess Cancer Center at Monmouth Medical Center, an affiliate of
the Saint Barnabas Health Care System. “IGRT represents
the next phase of oncology care in our specialty, as it allows
us, through image guidance, to watch the tumor move as a patient
breathes, and target it much more accurately than ever before.”
|
| Mitchell Weiss, M.D., chairman of the Institute for Advanced
Radiation Oncology at the Leon Hess Cancer Center, says
image-guided radiation therapy represents the next phase
of oncology care, allowing a tumor to be “watched” as
a person breathes and moves, and targeting it much more
accurately than ever before. |
What specifically sets this state-of-the-art method of conformal
radiotherapy apart from other less advanced forms is its unparalleled
ability to generate “cone-beam” or 3-D images of
the tumor site immediately before treatment.
By allowing radiation oncologists to “see before they
treat,” cancerous cells are targeted precisely and accurately
in real time without doing much harm to surrounding normal tissue
and with the lowest possible radiation dose.
IGRT allows physicians to use functional images from positron
emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and
computed tomography (CT) scanning to identify the target in a
much more accurate way, according to Dr. Weiss. “And now
with cone-beam technology, we can actually track tumor motion
and its location in the body, and adapt the treatment accordingly,” he
explains.
Marking the latest step in Monmouth Medical Center’s ongoing
advancement of 3-D conformal radiotherapy, IGRT with cone-beam
technology will be used to treat a host of cancers, including
breast, prostate, lung, colon and rectal and head and neck. Only
a handful of facilities in the country offer IGRT with cone-beam
technology and Monmouth Medical is the only one in its region.
Monmouth Medical Center marked a milestone in radiation therapy
in 2003 when it became the first hospital on the East Coast to
treat a patient with the Oncor Avant-Garde Linear Accelerator,
technology offering the most-sophisticated computer-guided planning
capabilities available and ultimately served as the springboard
for the introduction of IGRT in 2004 and, most recently, with
its cone-beam targeting capabilities.
Jack Yang, Ph.D., chief physicist for Monmouth’s Institute
for Advanced Radiation Oncology, further explains that the “cone-beam” technique
allows for an entire 3-D volume to be imaged with just one Linac
rotation. “Much like a global tracking system, this system
allows us to pinpoint the targeted area, delivering radiation
only to the precise area of the tumor and sparing healthy adjacent
tissue,” he adds.
For the past eight years, Monmouth has served as an intensity
modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) “elite model site” for
Siemens Medical Solutions, the Malvern, Pa.-based health care
supplier that developed the Oncor system to integrate many leading-edge
technologies. As a result of this status, it has hosted more
than 300 site visits over the last several years, welcoming radiation
oncologists, medical physicists and other cancer specialists
from throughout the world to explore the process and benefits
of establishing an IMRT practice in a community hospital.
Gaining international, national and state recognition for its
clinical research into advanced methods of radiation therapy
in recent years, the Institute for Advanced Radiation Oncology’s
achievements paved the way for Monmouth Medical Center to become
the first hospital in Monmouth County to earn accreditation from
the American College of Radiation Oncology for the quality, safety
and appropriateness of its radiation therapy.
Free tours of Monmouth Medical Center’s Institute for
Advanced Radiation Oncology for the general public are offered
the second Friday of each month from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. .
[ top ] [ back to
2006 News Index ] |
