Rapid City Regional Hospital: Improving Cancer Treatment for Native Americans with TomoTherapy
In 2002, the National Institute of Health (NIH) awarded Rapid City Regional Hospital a five-year, multi-million dollar grant to investigate ways to improve cancer care for Native Americans. The focus of the grant is to study barriers to cancer treatment, and to provide state-of-the-art radiation therapies for common cancers. RCRH chose TomoTherapy as one of the cornerstones of their research program.
The TomoTherapy Hi·Art System® at Rapid City Regional Hospital
“American Indians have a higher cancer mortality rate, often because they present with more advanced stages of disease,” explains Daniel Petereit, a Radiation Oncologist at RCRH who is the principal investigator of the grant.
“Although we are the closest cancer center for these patients, they live about 2 to 3 hours away, which may represent a barrier for patients presenting earlier in their disease process.” Many treatment protocols require daily radiation treatments for several weeks. For example, standard external beam radiation for prostate cancer takes about 8 weeks.
“If we can shorten that treatment period to 4, 5, or even 6 weeks, we have the potential to significantly improve the quality of life for these patients,” notes Dr. Petereit. The ultimate goal of the grant is to lower cancer mortality rates through offering innovative treatment approaches on trial, in conjunction with an extensive grass roots program that emphasizes screening, early detection, and healthy life style choices.
“TomoTherapy permits the delivery of shorter treatment schedules since we deliver higher doses with tighter margins,” explains Dr. Petereit. In addition, he notes that the Hi·Art System’s TomoImaging capability “offers a distinct advantage. TomoTherapy’s ability to image the entire tumor and deliver the intended plan surpasses all my expectations.”
Dr. Petereit, who has academic affiliations at both the University of Wisconsin and University of South Dakota Medical Schools, sat on one of the original committees that approved Thomas Mackie’s initial research proposals. “I’ve been involved in the background for quite a while,” he observes, “and it’s exciting to see the concept become a reality.”
Dr. Richard Crilly, Medical Physicist at RCRH, concurs. “We began treating patients with TomoTherapy in March 2004, and early results for prostate treatments look very good,” Dr. Crilly notes.
In addition, the department has been performing re-treatments for a number of other malignancies, as well as intensity modulated stereotactic radiotherapy for head and neck cancers. Dr. Crilly points out one particularly difficult case involving a brain tumor located near the patient’s eye. Although the affected eye had to be sacrificed in order to treat the tumor, physicians were able to create a TomoTherapy plan sparing the optical chiasm and the other eye.
“In my experience, this degree of sparing just wouldn’t have been possible with a standard IMRT system,” observes Dr. Crilly.
TomoTherapy treatment plan showing sparing of optical chiasm and opposite eye.
30 Jun 2004
