everyday imrt - every day

• PreciseBEAM® is an integrated solution that uses a digital platform to deliver IMRT in segmental mode. The Desktop Pro™ control system provides the largest IMRT field in the industry. Control of geometry and dosimetry is integrated in the single control system, giving tight coupling of dose delivery with leaf position verification.
  
• Accurate and stable beam control ensures a dose accuracy of <3% over 10MU, vital during the sequential delivery of low dose IMRT fields.
  
• The Elekta range of linear accelerators have rapid beam start-up, and excellent dose accuracy during the delivery of low dose sequential IMRT fields, through accurate and stable beam control.
  Start-up and inter-segment times are reduced to milliseconds. Maximum dose rate is delivered in under 400 milliseconds from start-up with a dose/MU accuracy of <1% above 2MU.  Each prescribed segment is delivered accurately and reliably at even the highest dose rates for superior patient throughput.  

Making planning simple

For IMRT treatment planning,  PrecisePLAN® uses an aperture-based inverse planning technique, developed by Elekta International IMRT Consortium member Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, USA. This PrecisePLAN® implementation of IMRT is a logical extension of familiar 3D planning, resulting in plans that are intuitive, easy to verify and quality assure.

Speeding up calibration and QA

• Elekta offers an automated process for MLC calibration, optimized for use with iViewGT™ images. AutoCAL software analyzes a set of digital images to confirm MLC leaves are within tolerance, and adjustments are transferred to Desktop Pro™ control system R6.0 at the touch of a button. AutoCAL can also be used to periodically check the MLC calibration is maintained.
• In combination with Scanditronix-Wellhöfer, Elekta offers the complete IMRT quality assurance solution, including hybrid plan dosimetric comparison of calculated with measured dose, linear accelerator and MLC QA. OmniPro I’mRT offers film-in-phantom comparison of 2D dose, simultaneous in-plane and cross-plane profile analysis, with distance to agreement, dose difference and gamma evaluation. A direct interface to  iViewGT™ supports verification of individual and integrated IMRT fields for both segmental and dynamic IMRT delivery.
  
  

Key benefits

• Aperture-based inverse-planning technique ensures easy planning, verification and QA
• Automated QA solutions for MLC calibration and dosimetry
  

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

Providing support for PreciseBEAM® implementation

The Elekta International IMRT Consortium showed the importance of the collaboration between the Radiation Oncologist, Medical Physicist, Dosimetrist and Radiation Therapist team – all have an active and vital role to play in achieving a successful IMRT program.

Ensuring staff competence

• Elekta provides clinical education programs at centers of excellence to assist with training of team members. Clinical courses have been run at hospitals in London, UK; Ghent, Belgium; Lund, Sweden; Mannheim, Germany; and in China. Further courses are planned for the future in a wide range of geographic locations.
  Supervised hands-on experience in an Elekta training course provides carers with specialised knowledge they can apply with confidence on the job.
• Intellimax ™ and remote support training is available for physicists and service engineers to enable them to maximize machine performance and clinical availability.
  

The future

• Elekta have established the Elekta Synergy® Research Consortium to evaluate the gains in IMRT delivery through image guided therapy based upon daily image acquisition while the patient is lying in the treatment position on the linear accelerator.
• Quantification and reduction of patient set-up errors as well as target and risk organ motion management with on-line patient set-up correction is possible. Patient specific target margin specification and possible on-line plan adjustments are being considered.
• For inverse-planning with fluence optimization and incorporation of biological constraints, including fast and accurate Monte Carlo dose calculations, Hyperion is in clinical use at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
• The dynamic delivery potential of IMAT* is in clinical use in Ghent, this system is work-in-progress and will be made available in a future Elekta linear accelerator upgrade to take IMRT delivery to a next phase.
  
  

Key benefits

• Training provided for all professionals in the IMRT implementation team
• Commitment to clinical research and product development to provide continuous product improvement  

 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.