Full Circle: TomoTherapy at St. Agnes HealthCare
On July 8, 2004, the Cancer Center at St. Agnes HealthCare began treating patients using the TomoTherapy Hi·Art System®. This new installation is the first TomoTherapy system to arrive in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern part of the United States.
Timothy Holmes, Ph.D., Director of Medical Physics at St. Agnes Healthcare, is one of the original patent holders (along with TomoTherapy co-founders Paul Reckwerdt and T. Rock Mackie) who conceived the idea of TomoTherapy in the late 1980’s. A summer internship in radiation oncology at the Mayo Clinic sparked Dr. Holmes’ interest in the field.
“It struck me that computers could be programmed to automate the planning that people had been doing.” Dr. Holmes continued to work on the concept for about six years until joining Dr. Mackie’s research group to pursue his PhD in Medical Physics.
Working under Dr. Mackie at the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Holmes wrote his thesis on the physical optimization of radiation therapy, and, along with the TomoTherapy Research Group, came up with the idea to build a new type of treatment machine that looks like a CT scanner that can do both imaging and treatment.
“In the early ‘90’s was the ‘aha!’ moment when I realized that we can create a new treatment platform, we didn’t need to use existing technology, and we could get away from the limitations inherent in the legacy architecture of conventional treatment units.”
“TomoTherapy represents a completely novel platform for delivering and localizing radiation therapy, specifically IMRT,” says Richard S. Hudes, M.D., Chief of the Division of Radiation Oncology at St. Agnes Cancer Center. “This is the first system that integrates CT imaging and treatment delivery into the same treatment machine.”
When the hospital was evaluating the purchase of a new linear accelerator, Dr. Hudes and Sylwester Dziuba, M.D., Director of Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS), analyzed one of their patient’s head and neck IMRT plan compared to a plan from the Hi·Art System. The TomoTherapy Hi·Art System® showed dramatically improved dose gradients which were able to avoid parotid glands significantly better than on the current system.
Dr. Hudes also compared a prostate cancer plan on the TomoTherapy which showed improved rectal sparing. “For IMRT in general, we believe this will be the new gold standard,” Dr. Holmes adds.
Drs. Hudes and Dziuba have treated prostate, head and neck, pelvic, thoracic and brain tumor patients on the Hi·Art System since the system was placed into service in July 2004. The department is currently developing equipment to support special procedures, such as stereotactic radiotherapy for the head and body, using the Hi·Art System.
“Moving to this unique platform is a quantum leap for radiation therapy,” says Dr. Hudes. “Referring doctors need to know that, in our opinion, TomoTherapy is a significantly improved radiation delivery method of unparalleled accuracy.”
TomoTherapy treatment plan for stereotactic TomoTherapy of a brain metastasis.
17 Sep 2004
