India is rapidly evolving in the field of Oncology with the enhanced investment towards cancer treatment. Recently, the country witnessed the launch of the first-of-its-kind advanced Radixact System with the Synchrony Automatic, Real-time Motion Synchronization Technology, for the precise treatment of cancer patients. Manipal Hospitals, India’s second-largest healthcare chain has obtained the requisite license from AERB for Radixact X9 Tomotherapy with Synchrony tumor tracking technology by the Accuray Company.
The system has a KV Panel X-ray that is mounted onto the Linear accelerator and also has an infrared sensing camera that tracks the breathing of the patient. If the tumor that is located in the lung or liver or pancreas which moves with respiration, this system has the capability to track the exact position of the tumor, giving feedback to the linear accelerator, i.e the tracking jaws. This tracking jaw tracks the tumor position even when the patient breathes normally.
In earlier technology, patients were asked to take a deep breath and hold while the laser beams treated cancer. After every 20 seconds, the patient would take a breather before resuming the treatment. The overall treatment process was almost 30-45 minutes. In another system called real time position management, the tumor is treated in a particular phase of respiration and the radiation is off in rest of respiratory phases. However, with this RADIXACT Synchrony, the overall treatment time has been reduced to 20 minutes as the patient does not need to hold deep breathes. Furthermore, there are minimal side effects of the treatment with this technology due to reduced safety margins around tumor. Hence, the technology significantly lowers the discomfort undergone by cancer patients. The machine has an accuracy of nearly 99.99%
The Radixact system, with its new generation of Tomotherapy with Synchrony technology serves Cancer patient needs, by far superior clinical results in Head & Neck, breast, GI & Prostate Cancers, which consolidate for more than 85% of occurrence. The System delivers 360 degree rotational delivery for the whole body and CT based daily IGRT treatment with Iterative reconstruction. The combined technologies enable the delivery of radiation using a variety of methods — from image-guided intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IG-IMRT) to stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) — to treat almost any tumor, even those that move with breathing, precision, accuracy and unprecedented flexibility. The technology helps clinicians to effectively and efficiently treat cancer patients requiring radiation therapy.
Worth INR 28 crore, the advanced synchrony technology breaks the barriers of cancer treatment. Here are the advantages of the technology:
- It enables clinicians to administer highly precise radiation to the tumor region which moves with natural breathing, i.e cancer in lung (primary or metastatic), liver, pancreas & prostate
- Provides comfort of natural breathing by the patient during radiation & reduces overall treatment time compared to the current radiation treatment technologies for cancer
- Minimizes the damage inflicted on healthy tissues surrounding the tumors, which are exposed to high – dose radiation, with minimal discomfort to the patient
- Tracks, detects the tumor and corrects its positions all within an adaptive time of 0.3 seconds and precisely administers dosage, with minimal invasion or discomfort to the patient.
