EVERYDAY IMRT – EVERY DAY

• Elekta have worked closely with clinics around the world to develop a range of products that are capable of delivering high quality radiation therapy service to the patient. This close collaboration with clinical partners has ensured that the functionality and efficiency of Elekta products are able to meet the demanding needs of any clinic at any time.
• The challenge to every clinic is to keep apace of new technologies, while improving treatment accuracy and increasing workflow efficiency. By taking an open systems approach, providing support throughout the product lifecycle, and upgrade options across the product range, Elekta leads the drive to help clinics meet these challenges. This philosophy ensures that Elekta linear accelerators achieve their full potential over years to come and that the clinic is equipped with the flexibility to evolve and meet the demands of both current and developing radiation therapy techniques.
• Elekta offers solutions for all elements of the IMRT process, including treatment planning and Quality Assurance tools. 
  

PreciseBEAM® – the clinical evidence

Elekta pioneered the International IMRT Consortium, consisting of clinics in both Europe and North America, in 1995. A substantial body of scientific and clinical publications was generated and is available to clinics that are starting a PreciseBEAM practice. The practical research into the IMRT process from this long-term partnership is input to Elekta equipment design. The Consortium has delivered IMRT using several techniques: segmental (step-and-shoot), dynamic (sliding window) and intensity modulated arc therapy (IMAT) – an Elekta patent that shows great promise for future delivery.

A technology pioneer

Elekta introduced digital control of the linear accelerator in the mid-1980s and this innovative design has been the foundation of the move to improved dose conformance techniques. Elekta leads the way in using multi control point beam technology, first with the motorized wedge (flexibly mixing open with wedge beam segments), OmniWedge™  (a unique Elekta extension of virtual wedge segments to enable collimator and MLC direction independent of wedge direction), and finally IMRT delivery.

Maintaining your investment

A most important requirement in the introduction of IMRT is not to extend the typical treatment time slot when more complex field segments and image guidance are introduced. Elekta offers the pragmatic solution of segmental IMRT to safely deliver standard IMRT plans in the regular time slot, hence patient throughput is not affected. The Elekta open systems design philosophy – from the very beginning an integral part of the design – does not force the clinic to upgrade equipment, hence maintaining your investment and staff experience.

Reassuring clinical focus

Above all, more complex techniques such as IMRT must be delivered safely every time. Elekta’s clinical focus offers the experience and leadership to promote such new technology. This leadership position continues with investment in image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) where Elekta sites are building the imaging and workflow protocols to move radiation delivery to new levels of accuracy and precision.

Key benefits

• Safe delivery of IMRT in standard treatment time slot
• Investment maintained through open-systems philosophy  

To print a copy of the PreciseBEAM brochure, click here. 

For additional PreciseBEAM information see: PreciseBEAM: evolution not revolution .

Maintaining patient throughput

Elekta recognized that radiation therapists (technologist, dosimetrist) play an important role in the IMRT team, and designed equipment that maintained smooth patient flow and improved treatment delivery. The Desktop Pro™ control system has the same familiar user interface for any prescription including IMRT. Likewise, using iViewGT™ portal imaging during IMRT segment delivery requires no additional effort from the user or changes to workflow or protocols. By ensuring that delivery and verification of IMRT is comparable to non-IMRT treatments, patient throughput is maintained.

Optimizing patient and target positioning

To assist the radiation therapist to optimize patient position and achieve a high degree of reproducibility, Elekta offers a number of immobilization devices.

• The Active Breathing Coordinator™ helps to immobilize a tumor in the lung or mediastinum, and is also used for irradiation of breast tangents (avoiding heart and cardiac vessels for left sided treatments).

• Elekta Esarte™ frame is a relocatable head frame for high precision intracranial treatments. It has a unique design and a range of accessories to ensure an easy, comfortable and highly accurate fit for fractionated stereotactic applications.

• For extracranial applications, the Stereotactic Body Frame® immobilizes the patient and positions them accurately for extra cranial stereotactic application.

• BodyFIX™ immobilizes the patient firmly and gently throughout imaging, simulation, and treatment and minimizes patient movement. BodyFIX is composed entirely of radio-translucent materials compatible with all imaging modalities (CT, MR, PET, SPECT, and ultrasound).
  
  

Unrivalled patient clearance

All Elekta linear accelerators provide unrivalled patient clearance that is essential for both routine and advanced IMRT techniques. The large radiation head clearance (45cm between the head and the isocenter) provides the spatial requirements that are essential for non-coplanar beam delivery. This compact X-ray head facilitates access to inferior/posterior oblique treatment angles.

Inspiring clinical confidence

• The real-time imaging of IMRT segments is made possible with iViewGT™ using continuous imaging. Single or multiple images can be chosen, or a movie loop acquired for each field.

• Elekta Synergy® and Elekta Synergy® S bring a new dimension to tumor localization before treatment, as they facilitate 3D imaging at time of treatment. X-ray volume imaging (XVI) has the ability to visualize soft tissue, tumor and organs at risk, to provide additional confidence in IMRT delivery.

 PreciseBEAM® workflow (click on image to launch pdf)

Elekta offers products and services that cover all elements of the IMRT process to ensure  smooth implementation in the clinic.