New technology is helping the Willmar Cancer Center's radiation therapy program zero in more precisely on treating tumors.
The addition of the intensity-modulated radiation therapy will help improve patient care and increase the range of options, especially for patients with tumors that are hard to treat, Cancer Center officials say.
"Now we'll be able to escalate the dose into a higher range to achieve a better result," said Dr. John Ling, radiation oncologist at Rice Memorial Hospital and the Willmar Cancer Center.
Proceeds from the Rice Health Foundation's Holiday Festival this year are going to the radiation therapy program, to help buy a stereotactic body frame that will be used for patients receiving intensity-modulated radiation therapy.
The foundation's annual fundraiser is expected to cover about half of the $80,000 cost; the city-owned hospital will pay for the rest through its own capital budget.
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"This is about improving the types of service we can provide to patients," said Lorry Massa, CEO of Rice. "We're hopeful we'll see some more cancers and more patients we might not otherwise have seen."
The hospital began providing intensity-modulated radiation therapy in April 2004. It was among the first in the state to offer this specialized therapy.
In the same way that new chemotherapy drugs increasingly are being tailored to home in on tumor cells, radiation therapy is becoming more precise and targeted.
One of the long-standing challenges of cancer treatment has been its toxicity. Along with destroying cancer cells, chemotherapy and radiation also damage healthy cells and lead to treatment-related side effects.
Although the body is able to repair some of the damage, patients often are left vulnerable to long-term or late effects that range from radiation-related scarring to an elevated risk of secondary cancer.
Intensity-modulated therapy aims to increase the effectiveness of radiation therapy while reducing some of these risks.
Using CT-guided technology, doctors and technicians are able to map the location and outline of a tumor and precisely focus the radiation on the tumor, while sparing the surrounding tissue.
"We can use a very small focus of radiation beam and treat from multiple angles," Ling said. "It has much less side effects and is safer. It's very helpful and beneficial to the patient."
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Intensity-modulated therapy is particularly effective for cancers that are difficult to precisely target because of their location -- such as a lung tumor that is next to the spine or heart, or an adrenal gland tumor next to a kidney, Ling said.
Intensity-modulated radiation therapy is accurate to within 5 millimeters and can be delivered from up to a dozen angles.
It also can be used for cancers in sensitive areas such as the brain.
"The whole brain can only tolerate a certain amount of radiation," Ling explained. With intensity-modulated therapy, radiation can be pinpointed to the areas that need treatment, allowing the patient to receive a higher -- and more effective -- dose than would otherwise be possible, he said.
Over the long term, it might also help reduce health care costs by cutting down on treatment-related complications among radiation therapy patients.
The ability to precisely zoom in on a tumor has created a new challenge, however: how to keep the patient relatively immobile so the radiation beams remain accurately targeted during each treatment session.
Hence the stereotactic body frame. It's designed to apply light pressure to the diaphragm and minimize the minute internal shifts caused by breathing and slight involuntary movements.
"Not many places have this yet," said Paul Elliott, the program's medical physicist. "Is it going to benefit our patients? Dr. Ling and I think yes, it ought to."
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The device won't be uncomfortable for patients, he said. "When I'm doing the planning, we have to work with how long they can stay on the table. If they won't finish the treatment, we haven't done any good at all. It has to be comfortable for the patient."
He and Ling hope to have the body frame available for patients early in 2007.
Of the 240 or so new patients treated at the hospital's radiation therapy department each year, about 30 percent will receive intensity-modulated therapy, Ling said.
"I think physicians will be more aggressive and more willing to treat some of these cancers," Massa said. "For a community hospital, we are on the leading edge."
