When you are diagnosed with cancer it is important to discuss all available treatment options with your doctor. One option you can choose is stereotactic radiation therapy, a non-surgical treatment that uses focused beams of radiation on small and previously inaccessible tumors or lesions deep within the body.
Sinai Hospital's Alvin & Lois Lapidus Cancer Institute and Department of Radiation Oncology currently use CyberKnife® stereotactic radiation therapy system to treat cancer patients, but there is a new innovative technology that will be used to give cancer patients hope. It's called TrueBeam™ radiotherapy system, and Sinai is one of the only centers offering TrueBeam™ in the mid-Atlantic region. This innovative medical technology enables a radically different approach to treating cancer with image-guided radiotherapy.
What is TrueBeam™?
The TrueBeam™ system is a radiotherapy system that uses noninvasive tumor-destroying radiation to treat cancers throughout the body. Because its technology is accurate, powerful and precise, many treatments can be given in minutes each day.
How does the TrueBeam™ system work?
TrueBeam™ rotates around the patient to deliver a prescribed amount of radiation from nearly any angle. This artful, elegant technology combines imaging and beam delivery to target tumors with sub-millimeter accuracy.
Part of TrueBeam™ bull's-eye precision entails attacking tumors even when they're in motion. In addition to having an imaging system that allows doctors to "see" the tumor they are treating, TrueBeam™ also has sophisticated respiratory monitoring systems that synchronizes beam delivery with respiration.
The TrueBeam™ Treatment Process:
Doctors take 3-D images of the patient's tumor to know its size, shape and location. From there doctors develop a treatment plan for the patient using software that generates a 3-D "picture" of the area around the tumor. Then they determine the amount of radiation that the patient needs, as well as the correct angles to give the radiation.
Patients are then guided to a treatment room where they lie on a table. The TrueBeam™ system rotates around them at various angles while the doctor is in constant communication. The entire process only takes a few minutes!
Patients will need to undergo follow-up care with their doctor after the treatment. During this time they can ask any questions.
What types of cancer can the TrueBeam™ system treat?
TrueBeam™ can treat cancer in any part of the body including, but not limited to:
- Head
- Neck
- Lungs
- Abdomen
- Breast
- Liver
- Pelvis
- Prostate
What are the benefits of using TrueBeam™?
- Dose delivery rates are 40 – 140 percent higher than earlier generations of radiation therapies, which means that it dramatically reduces the length of individual treatments.
- Doctors have the flexibility to customize treatments for patients, which allows them to choose the best treatment for each particular case
- Doctors can visualize in "real time" the tumor that is being treated.
- The technology allows clinicians to use 25 percent less X-ray doses as compared to other types of technology.
- Continuous two-way audio and video with the therapist allows you to communicate easily while being treated.
- The technology is so quiet that patients can listen to music during treatment.
The addition of TrueBeam™ completes Sinai's state-of-the-art, full-service Radiation Oncology department.
Our TrueBeam™ Team of Experts
Jeanette Linder, M.D.
Chief of Radiation Oncology
410-601-5689
Cardella W. Coleman, M.D.
Radiation Oncology
410-601-5689
For more information call 410-601-WELL.