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Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), the largest radiation therapy
treatment facility under one roof in North America, is also a
pioneer in image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). Since 2002,
Dr. David Jaffray, head of radiation physics at the hospital,
has led a team of multidisciplinary researchers at the Toronto
center in working with Elekta to build clinical systems that
enable very high precision radiation therapy. An IMPAC customer
for a decade, PMH interfaces the IMPAC system with the Elekta
Synergy® image guided platform.
Advanced Imaging
PMH uses Elekta Synergy® S, one of the world’s most advanced
linear accelerator systems, to perform high resolution, 3D
volumetric imaging using Elekta’s kV imaging system that is
integrated to the linear accelerator gantry. “While a patient is
in position,” explains Jaffray, “we can capture 300-600 images
that are rapidly processed on computers to provide a
reconstruction of the patient’s internal anatomy. By the time
the gantry stops moving, the image is nearly completed.” PMH is
a member of the Elekta Synergy Research Group and one of four
research facilities that have been deeply involved in the
development of IGRT. To date, PMH has treated more than 100
patients with Elekta technology. “The device is sufficiently
stable to trust the numbers, which are precise to within a
millimeter,” says Jaffray, “and it is proving to be feasible to
use on a daily basis within current workflow constraints.”
Improved Therapy
According to Jaffray, the new technology promises to allow
decreased treatment margins, which will allow dose escalation to
certain sites, or alternatively reduced toxicity in other sites,
but its value needs to be proven in clinical trials. “The
technological challenge,” he says, “will be to facilitate use of
this new information and provide feedback for improved therapy
design. We look to IMPAC to provide the tools to access and
distribute that type of information.”
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Dr. David Jaffray, head of radiation physics, Princess Margaret
Hospital |
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