Radiotherapy Goes Ultra Fast

Bringing some good news for patients requiring radiotherapy,doctors in the city say that it no longer needs to be a prolonged treatment. “Using an advanced technology,the treatment time can be brought down to three to five sittings,specially for selective small lung tumours,liver tumours,brain tumours and early prostate cancers,” says Dr Bhooshan Zade,consultant radiation oncologist at Ruby Hall Cancer Centre.

Calling the technology a giant leap that brings immense comfort to patients,Dr Ashok Bhanage,chairman of the centre,explains that the reason for the delay in radiotherapy so far was due to the inability to deliver high dose to the tumour without damaging surrounding tissues. Hence,the total dose used to get divided into small daily doses so that the normal tissues can tolerate the impact making radiotherapy a lengthy treatment. “Now,it is possible because of three reasons. Firstly,4D imaging is helping to accurately localise the tumour in various phases of respiration,advanced high-precision treatment planning system helps delivery of high dose without damaging surrounding normal tissues and most importantly,the High Dose Rate flattening filter Free Beam Linear Accelerator is seven times faster,” he says.

Zade says this is perhaps the only machine in this part of India to deliver such a high dose in short span of time. The best examples of high-precision radiotherapy are intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and stereotactic radiotherapy (SBRT). Both techniques require very firm immobilisation of the patient,incorporation of radiological examination in the treatment planning for precise definition of the target and highly precise and technical advanced radiation equipment,he adds.

Zade says that in the management of lung cancer,SBRT can result in more patients being treated with curative intent. “Limited-stage non-small cell lung cancer is generally treated surgically. However,a large number of patients with lung cancer have poor lung function due to tobacco smoking and may be medically inoperable. Such patients are fit candidates for radiotherapy,” he says.