UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO HOSPITAL COMMENCE TREATMENT WITH JAPAN’S FIRST SYSTEM FOR ADVANCED IMAGE GUIDED RADIATION THERAPY
Tokyo, Japan, March 9, 2007
After becoming Japan’s first medical center to acquire Elekta Synergy®, an advanced treatment system for intensity modulated and image guided radiation therapy (IMRT and IGRT), University of Tokyo Hospital recently treated its first patients, becoming the first hospital in Japan to clinically use advanced, 3D X-ray volume image guided radiation therapy to irradiate cancer tumors with higher precision and accuracy.
Early this year, radiation oncologists at University of Tokyo Hospital harnessed the unique imaging capabilities (X-ray Volume Imaging, XVI) of Elekta Synergy and then used the system to treat a patient with a lung tumor.
“It was surprising to localize the tumor so efficiently and easily with the XVI functionality,” says Keiichi Nakagawa, M.D., associate professor, department of radiology at University of Tokyo Hospital. “A few days later, we used Elekta Synergy and XVI to image a neck sarcoma. Our therapists were very pleased to confirm by way of XVI that they had achieved a registration accuracy of less than 0.1 mm in all directions.
Prior to taking the Elekta Synergy system’s imaging capabilities into routine clinical use, doctors had been using the treatment machine as a conventional treatment system for several patients. With the XVI technology, University of Tokyo Hospital doctors will now be employing Elekta Synergy for cancer targets that demand precise localization before irradiation, such as those in the lung and head and neck, Dr. Nakagawa says.
What is Elekta Synergy®?
Elekta Synergy is an advanced digital linear accelerator equipped with imaging equipment that enables doctors to acquire images of the patient with the patient in the treatment position. Clinicians can then use the imaging data to fine-tune the patient’s position immediately prior to treatment.
The concept of image guided radiation therapy, pioneered by Elekta, and the creation of Elekta Synergy, first introduced in 2002, was driven by the need to visualize internal structures, including soft tissues, in three dimensions within the reference frame of the treatment system and at the time of treatment. This will allow the clinician to minimize geometric uncertainties resulting from both organ motion/deformation and slight differences in patient set-up. Elekta Synergy has therefore been designed to inspire clinical confidence via IGRT to practice advanced radiation therapy techniques. This combination of high resolution imaging, taken in 3D and at the time (the 4th dimension) of treatment – combined with workflow solutions developed to be applicable on a routine basis – is described as ‘4D Adaptive’ and is the Elekta® IGRT solution.
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