TomoTherapy and NELCO Partner to Reduce Radiation Therapy Construction Costs

MADISON, WI, Nov 23, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- TomoTherapy Incorporated /quotes/comstock/15*!tomo/quotes/nls/tomo (TOMO 3.53, 0.00, 0.00%) , maker of advanced radiation therapy solutions for the treatment of cancer and other diseases, today announced availability of a shielding solution that enables hospitals and cancer centers to quickly, easily and inexpensively build out treatment vaults that are properly shielded for use of the TomoTherapy(R) radiation therapy system. The Total Shield(TM) by NELCO, the worldwide leader in designing, manufacturing, and installing specialized products and services for the medical, industrial, and construction fields, is a customized shielding enclosure designed to fit around a TomoTherapy unit, making it possible for the radiation therapy system to be placed into existing under-shielded vaults or other treatment rooms where there may not be enough space to install necessary shielding using the existing infrastructure.

Total Shield provides hospitals and cancer centers with the flexibility to put the TomoTherapy system in an existing space, which may be too small or may not include enough shielding for modern intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) devices. Instead of adding shielding in the walls, the Total Shield enclosure is designed to wrap around the TomoTherapy system itself.

By taking this approach, TomoTherapy customers can potentially save hundreds of thousands of dollars in shielding costs and eliminate the months it takes to install conventional shielding solutions. Total Shield can be installed in just a matter of days. Additionally, because the Total Shield can be easily removed, it can be reused if the TomoTherapy system is eventually moved to a new location.

source: TomoTherapy

Smoking during radiation therapy for head and neck cancers linked to poorer outcomes

Smokers who don’t quit before radiation therapy for throat, mouth and other head and neck cancers fair significantly worse than those who do, research from the UC Davis Cancer Center has found.

Allen Chen, an assistant professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the UC Davis Cancer Center, found that head- and neck-cancer patients who continue to smoke during radiation therapy have poorer 5-year overall survival and higher rates of disease recurrence than those who quit smoking prior to treatment.

The study, published online recently in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology and Physics, should help oncologists counsel patients about the benefits of quitting smoking after a diagnosis of head and neck cancer, said Chen, lead author of the study.

“I always tell patients, ‘You should really stop smoking,’ but I had no tangible evidence to use to convince them that they would be worse off if they continued to smoke,” Chen said. “I wanted concrete data to see if smoking was detrimental in terms of curability, overall survival and tolerability of treatment. We showed continued tobacco smoking contributed to negative outcomes with regard to all of those.”

Chen and colleagues reviewed medical records of 101 patients with newly diagnosed squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck who continued to smoke during radiation therapy, and matched those patients to others who had quit prior to starting radiation therapy for their head and neck cancers.

source: UC Davis Cancer Center

Aluminium-Containing Antiperspirants Do Not Cause Adverse Skin Reactions During Radiation Therapy: Presented at ASTRO

By Ed Susman

SAN DIEGO -- November 4, 2010 -- Women who undergo radiation therapy for breast cancer probably can belay fears that use of aluminium-containing antiperspirants will cause skin reactions or that the aluminium will increase the amount of radiation women receive.

The research was presented here on November 1 at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

The research team enrolled 198 women who were planning on receiving radiotherapy and told half the women to use the antiperspirants which often contain aluminium compounds and told the other half of the women to use standard care (wash only).

The researchers wanted to test whether use of these products were responsible for anecdotal concerns that the metallic content of the products produced greater erythema that non-use of the products. But what they found was no difference between the women who used the products and those that did not.

There was no increase in the intensity of the transient sunburn-like skin reactions that most people experience during radiation treatment among women using antiperspirants.

source: Doctors Guide

Varian Medical Systems Receives 510(k) Clearance for Acuros® XB Advanced Dose Calculation Algorithm for Planning Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 1 , 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ASTRO Booth # 201 -- Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) has received FDA 510(k) clearance for the Acuros® XB advanced dose calculation algorithm which can complete a RapidArc® treatment plan two to three times faster than conventional planning algorithms. Varian has incorporated the Acuros algorithm for external beam radiotherapy treatment planning into its market-leading Eclipse™ treatment planning system on exhibit at the 52nd annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) in San Diego October 31 - November 4.

The Acuros dose calculation algorithm is designed for planning complex cases quickly and easily. It is particularly beneficial for planning sophisticated treatments in areas like the lungs or sinuses, where tissue density varies. It is also ideal for planning treatments that require many beam angles, including RapidArc radiotherapy and radiosurgery, which deliver beams continually from all angles as the treatment machine rotates around the patient.

source: Varian