The North Shore- LIJ Health Systems has acquired the state-of-the-art technology in treatment image-guided therapy with the TrueBeam system from Varian Medical Systems.
TrueBeam uses image-guided enhancements for radiotherapy that enable concentration of a radiation beam to a smaller targeted area than was ever before possible, according to Dr. Louis Potters, chairman of radiation medicine at North Shore-LIJ.
“This is a newer generation of linear accelerator which is digital in its operation. It’s like going from vinyls to CDs,” Potters said, drawing an analogy to audio playback technology. “As with CDs, you have greater clarity and improved precision because radiation therapy is geographic. We target tumors. The objective is to treat the target and not the normal tissues around it.”
The new Varian Medical machine is enabling North Shore-LIJ’s department of radiation medicine to shorten the length of treatment sessions from 25 to 10 minutes, Potters said. That figures to allow the hospital, which currently handles 1,500 patients annually in its radio department, to extend services to a larger base.
“The enhanced throughput will allow us to treat more patients and I think the opportunity to run clinical trials and doing research will drive the patient numbers,” Potters said.
The focus of the TrueBeam machine, which costs between $3 million and $4 million will be on treating lung, breast, head, neck and other cancers treatable with radiotherapy which sometimes can’t entirely hit the mark of a tumor because of involuntary patient movement during the treatment. The TrueBeam uses its image technology to lock onto the area to be treated – with between 40 percent and 140 percent improved results since the dosage can be more concentrated in the narrowly focused radiation stream from the machine, reducing treatment time and hence, the incidence of motion.
TrueBeam actually hits the tumor it’s aiming to reduce at intervals when it has a fix on it, avoiding damage to healthy tissue in the course of treatment
“We will be looking at cancers such as lung cancer and tumors where organ motion is important in terms of mitigating motion,” Potters said.
Ultimately, Potters said the TrueBeam may reduce the frequency and term of radiation treatments. North Shore-LIJ will purchase three more of the machines over the next several months.
“As our understanding of the tech and its use improves, we should be able to change the paradigm of daily treatments hopefully to fewer treatments,” Potters said, emphasizing that the North Shore-LIJ physicians will be on a learning curve that could significantly affect cancer treatment regimens. “This platform of a new machine will provide us the palette of the opportunity for change. Just like any other technology when it’s new, it presents itself as an opportunity. You don’t know where it’s going to go.”
TrueBeam presents the chance for physics research and clinical research to explore results of acceleration and the practical impact of the new radiation therapy on patients.
Potters said results of technical trials probably will be published shortly, with clinical studies to be conducted and reported over the next two years in a sequence that will enhance North Shore-LIJ’s profile in cancer treatment, according to Potters
“It demonstrates a commitment of the health system to advance cancer therapy and research,” Potters said. “And it puts us on a playing field with centers that are national cancer institutes.”
