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First Coast Oncology offers
Revolutionary Radiation Treatment at all three
Facilities
IMRT, Intensity Modulated
Radiation Therapy, is a powerful new type of radiation
treatment that is the latest state of the art weapon to
fight cancerous tumors. It is a type of
external beam radiation that merges together beams from
many different angles which can be individually shaped
to bend around tissue to more accurately treat a
tumor. The
result is that we are able to treat a tumor with higher
doses of radiation while reducing the exposure of
radiation to surrounding healthy tissues. This is better
for the patient because it reduces the side effects of
treatment while providing us the best opportunity to
eradicate the tumor, states Scot Ackerman, M.D.
First
Coast
Oncology is using IMRT technology provided by Elekta
Systems to treat patients with breast, prostate, and
head and neck cancers. Dr. Ackerman
adds that, IMRT is especially helpful for cancer
patients that have already received the maximum dose of
radiation in conventional treatment. The accuracy
allows us to treat a tumor with IMRT and save the
surrounding tissue. This may
increase the chance for a cure for many patients with
tumors in difficult to reach areas in the body. The length of
treatments is similar to conventional radiation and
depends on the size and location of the tumor. Patients can
plan on about five to six weeks of daily treatments that
last only about 15 minutes each. IMRT may replace
conventional treatment or be used in conjunction with
conventional treatment. As the
technology advances in the near future, IMRT will be
used for many other types of cancers and hopefully
increase survival rates among cancer
patients.
First Coast Oncology receives ACR
Accreditation (January, 2003)
First Coast Oncology in Jacksonville, Florida has
been awarded a three-year term of accreditation in
Radiation Oncology as a result of a recent survey by the
American College of Radiology (ACR).
The ACR, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, awards
accreditation to facilities for the achievement of high
practice standards after a peer-review evaluation of its
practice. Evaluations are conducted by
board-certified physicians and medical physicists who
are experts in the field. They assess the
qualifications of the personnel, adequacy of facility
equipment, as well as quality assessment and improvement
activities, including peer review. The surveyors
report their findings to the ACR's Committee on
Accreditation, which subsequently provides the practice
with a comprehensive report.
The ACR is a national organization serving more than
32,000 radiologists, radiation oncologists and medical
physicists with programs focusing on the practice of
medical imaging and radiation oncology and the delivery
of comprehensive health care
services.
Targeting Cancer with
BAT
Technology Pinpoints Tumors for
More Precise Radiation
Therapy
By Pamela
Rittenhouse - St. Vincent's Medical Center
Prostate cancer patient
Bill Trawick is among the first at St.
Vincent's to undergo something new in
radiation oncology. It's called BAT-
an acronym for a new medical device that physicians say
is an important advance for cancer patients like Trawick
who are undergoing radiation therapy.
BAT stands for B-Mode
Acquisition and Targeting System. That sounds
complex, but it's actually pretty easy to Remember that radiation therapy aims doses of
radiation at cancerous tissue to destroy the What doctors want for their patients is the most
precise aim possible because that means maximum
treatment and minimum side effects. Trouble is,
they're aiming at a moving target. Organs shift
from day to day, and that means the cancer within also
moves.
"In radiation oncology, a
major challenge has always been delivering
high-intensity radiation to organs that move without
damaging surrounding healthy tissue", says Scot
Ackerman, MD, Medical Director of Radiation Oncology at
St. Vincent's. BAT is a device
that gives us ultrasound images of the patient's tumor
immediately prior to radiation treatment. It allows us to
make precise adjustments that line the beam up exactly
on the tumor so we can deliver high intensity radiation
directly to the cancer."
Dr. Ackerman explained the
new device to Trawick, who was scheduled for six weeks
of radiation therapy at St. Vincent's for prostate cancer.
Trawick was glad to hear BAT would decrease the risk of rectal bleeding
and other complications that may follow radiation
therapy. "I've been coming in for my treatments, and I'm
feeling great," Trawick said. "I can't tell
anything's going on. I feel
fine."
BAT ultrasound-based
targeting is currently being used for prostate and
breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy at
St. Vincent's. Its use will
likely be expanded to include patients who come to
radiation oncology with cancers of the head, neck,
pancreas, liver, and bladder.
For patients like Trawick,
the arrival of BAT means lying down in the normal
treatment position as a radiation therapist uses the
device to create ultrasound images. It takes only a
few moments, and it doesn't hurt. The images show
the degree of organ movement since the original
treatment planning scan. Armed with this
information, the therapist repositions the patient.
On the day we
met Trawick that meant moving him 0.074 cm to the left,
0.642 cm down and 0.895 cm away form the accelerator
that would deliver radiation.
Those are small movements,
but Dr. Ackerman says they make a big difference. "We're seeing
less side effects in our patients who are being treated
using BAT", Ackerman says. "When we have
fewer side effects, we can aim higher doses of radiation
at the cancer. That insures a higher chance of killing all the
cancer, and that's what we want."
Sounds good to Bill
Trawick. The former college staffing manager wants to
enjoy his retirement, and he has held on firmly to a
positive attitude since his doctor told him he has
prostate cancer. "I'm thinking about getting well", Trawick said,
as he waited for a radiation therapist to call him for
his daily radiation treatment that begins with BAT. "I don't want my
life to change. I call this time with prostate cancer just a
short glitch. It's a bump in the
road."
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