Technology and Innovation at City of Hope
City of Hope Cancer Center, near Los Angeles, CA, is one of the world’s leading research and treatment centers for oncology, and a pioneer in the field of bone marrow transplantation. City of Hope treats over 200 patients per year with total body irradiation in preparation for bone marrow transplantation, which is one of the reasons Jeffrey Wong, MD, chair, Division of Radiation Oncology, became interested in TomoTherapy. “Helical TomoTherapy is unique since it has the potential to deliver conformal radiation to large and complex targets, such as the entire bone marrow compartment,” notes Dr. Wong. City of Hope, a TomoTherapy Center of Excellence and one of 40 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, plan to begin treating patients in late October 2004.
“Most applications of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) are easily achievable only for early stage disease,” observes Tim Schultheiss, PhD, director, Department of Radiation Physics. “Helical TomoTherapy can deliver IMRT as easily to large volume, locally advanced disease as it can to early stage disease. This is accomplished in a system that is fully integrated, even to the point of imaging the delivered dose on a daily basis if desired.”
“We want to explore the use of TomoTherapy to selectively deliver radiation therapy to the entire marrow compartment, sparing radiation to critical normal organs such as lung, heart, brain, GI tract, oral mucosa, hypopharynx and larynx,” explains Dr. Wong. “This should result in less toxicity and lower long-term risks.” Dr. Wong and his colleagues are developing clinical trials to study the effectiveness of increasing the dose delivered to the marrow and lymphoid compartments before bone marrow transplants.
In addition to bone marrow irradiation, Dr. Wong notes that he and his colleagues have been evaluating helical TomoTherapy treatment plans “for partial breast irradiation, as a form of high-dose stereotactic radiotherapy for brain cancers, for definitive treatment for prostate cancers, for pelvic lymph node irradiation, and for irradiation of head and neck cancers.” In particular, Dr. Wong is interested in using the Hi·Art System to treat prostate and lung cancers with higher doses and fewer treatment fractions. “The TomoTherapy Hi·Art System has broad applicability to many clinical situations,” Dr. Wong points out, “and with its precise conformal radiotherapy capabilities, helical TomoTherapy is potentially superior to current forms of IMRT delivery in a select group of patients.”
29 Sep 2004
