April 01, 2009

Revolutionary Cancer Treatment Now at RVMC

It would be difficult to park your car in your garage with your eyes closed. Now imagine someone moved the garage. Wouldn't you want to know where it was? Some cancers, such as prostate cancer, pose a similar problem for doctors because the cancer is in a part of the body where it can shift and move. Doctors need to know precisely where the tumor is to deliver the most effective dose of radiation.

TomoTherapy^® (http://www.tomotherapy.org), the newest form of radiation therapy for certain cancers, gives doctors that ability, and it is now available at Dubs Cancer Center at Rogue Valley Medical Center.

The TomoTherapy^® Hi-Art^® treatment system combines intensity-modulated radiation therapy-the most effective form of radiation therapy-with the image precision of a CT scan to guide radiation exactly to tumor areas.

Patients lie on a table that moves through a rotating donut-like opening, like a CT scan. As they pass through, the IMRT heads spin around inside the donut, sending radiation beams at an infinite number of angles to reach the exact location of the tumor. This maximizes the radiation reaching the cancer while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. It may spare patients many of the difficult side effects of traditional radiation treatments.

"Tomotherapy represents the best radiation approach for many cancers," says Jere Sandefur, MD, an oncologist at Dubs Cancer Center. "We are going to take a scan every day on the table right before we treat the patient so we can shift the radiation right to the target."

Current treatment systems require getting a CT image of the tumor, and then positioning the body at a later time and targeting the tumor based on the image. This works extremely well for most cancers, but not with ones in very sensitive places such as the spine or neck or in areas that move such as the prostate.

Currently, patients wishing to benefit from this powerful advance in cancer care must travel either to Salem or to the University of California at Davis-the two closest treatment sites. Thanks to generous and ongoing community support through the Asante Foundation, however, this startlingly successful therapy is now here.
 
The cancer specialists at Dubs Cancer Center on the RVMC campus can help you decide if tomotherapy is the right choice for you or your loved one.

To schedule a tour or make a gift, please contact the Foundation office at 789-5025.