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St. John's to Provide New Radiation Therapy to Cancer Patients
Aug. 17, 2001
The Radiation Oncology department at St. John's Regional Health Center will in
2003 begin providing intensity-modulated radiation therapy, (IMRT) a new treatment for cancer that allows oncologists to treat specific portions of the body, while limiting the radiation dose to the surrounding organs.
Workers installed a new $600,000 large-bore CT scanner in the department Aug. 10. The new scanner, which is oncology-specific with its large opening, is the first step in being able to provide IMRT, according to Radiation Oncology Director Arnie Shreffler.
The 20-employee department is also scheduled to acquire a new $400,000 computer system to formulate treatment plans for patients.
"The purpose of the CT scanner in Radiation Oncology is to gather large amounts of anatomical data so that we can program our treatment-planning computer systems with patient data. Those systems are used to plan the direction and quantity of radiation beams that will be used to treat the patient's cancer," Shreffler said. "The new scanner's larger opening will allow us to more accurately assess the patient's anatomy because the patient will be in the actual treatment position instead of just lying flat on a table like a standard CT scanner would require."
Shreffler said IMRT is only possible when large amounts of high-quality, digital patient data are available for treatment planning.
"We'll be the first in the region to have IMRT capability," Shreffler said. "IMRT is used to treat patients with cancers in delicate or critical locations in their body, such as in the head and neck, eyes, spine, breast and prostate, which are often sitting adjacent to structures that will be rendered functionless by the radiation used to kill the cancer. IMRT will allow us to beam high doses of radiation to tumors immediately adjacent to those critical structures and drastically reduce the negative side effects of radiation."
Radiation Oncology treats about 800 cancer patients per year, according to radiation oncologist Michael Albritton, M.D. About 15-18 percent of those patients, or approximately 150 patients per year, are candidates for the new therapy, he said.
The department will use the new CT scanner to provide treatment plans for 350 patients per year in addition to the 150 who are candidates for IMRT, Shreffler said.
Radiation Oncology Medical Director Drew Rogers, M.D., said the new scanner will allow the department to improve its techniques, reduce scan times and obtain higher-quality scans.
"We used to take about 25-30 minutes to scan a prostate- cancer patient. With the new scanner, it takes about three minutes, and the pictures are so much better," he said.
Because IMRT is a relatively new therapy, Rogers and Albritton agreed that its primary purpose is reducing patient complications from radiation therapy.
"IMRT has been performed at academic centers since 1994 or 1995, but it has only been used as a modality since 1998. What we know about it is that it reduces complications. We don't know if it improves the cure rate from these types of cancers," Rogers said.
Albritton added, however, that IMRT allows treatment of portions of the body that otherwise could not withstand radiation therapy.
Rogers and Albritton credit St. John's with expediting the process to begin offering IMRT to cancer patients in the Ozarks.
"The administration of St. John's was very cooperative once we let them know that IMRT was really coming down the pike, patients were asking about this therapy, and that we needed to purchase the equipment to become IMRT-capable," Albritton said.
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