News

First Patient Treated Using State of the Art VMAT Technology

New technology increases patient comfort, reduces treatment time and improves efficiency of treatment delivery

Newmarket, Ontario – April 11, 2011 – This week, the Radiation Medicine Program at Southlake treated its first patient using the highly advanced Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) system. VMAT is an improvement on current radiation therapies in that it offers faster and highly conformal treatment.

Mr. Gilberto Marreiros, 70, diagnosed with prostate cancer in November 2010 was the first patient to be treated with this new technique. “Everything was very quick,” he said, “The whole process was very smooth, and I am very happy to be getting the treatment close to home.”

For prostate cancer treatments, the current standard, known as Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT), typically uses seven beams directed at the prostate while avoiding other surrounding organs. By segmenting the dose contributed by each beam and optimizing beam geometry, doses to surrounding organs can be minimized, allowing for a higher likelihood of cancer control and a lower risk of side effects.

VMAT represents a further refinement of the technology whereby the gantry, or beam arm that delivers the treatment, rotates continuously around the patients and can vary the shape and strength of the beam as it goes.

“This allows for considerably faster and more comfortable treatment for the patient,” said Dr. Louis Fenkell, a radiation oncologist at the cancer centre. “We are now able to deliver the treatment in two to three minutes, as opposed to 9-10 minutes previously.”

This statistic is good news for the hospital and for patients as well. For someone with prostate cancer, like Mr. Marreiros, a full bladder is required to receive treatment, so having the treatment time reduced helps to increase patient comfort.

“That part was nice,” said Marreiros, “having treatment every day for two months, it was nice to have a positive environment and a place where they made me feel comfortable.”

“This technology gives us more freedom in creating treatment plans for our patients.  IMRT is the recognized Cancer Care Ontario standard, but VMAT allows for more advanced treatment planning,” said Dr. Fenkell.

“Patients undergo a CT scan to map out the tumor, or target.  Prior to the patient’s first treatment appointment, the medical physics team delivers the treatment on a ‘phantom’ measurement device.  This ensures maximum precision and safety of the treatment,” added Dr. Ivan Yeung, Head of Medical Physics at the centre.

“It is slightly more labour intensive in the planning stages, but from the patient’s perspective, they receive a comfortable and convenient treatment,” said Dr. Fenkell.

The use of this new technology will allow Southlake to maintain their world class level of care for their patients. When the centre opened a year ago, it was already considered to be equipped with state of the art technology and facilities. Expanding with this new technology will ensure that the Stronach Regional Cancer Centre at Southlake remains at the technological forefront.

In addition to Mr. Marreiros being the first patient to be treated with VMAT, he is also the first radiotherapy patient to participate in a large international randomized clinical trial, known as PROFIT -- (a randomized trial of a shorter radiation fractionation schedule for the treatment of localized prostate cancer). This trial investigates the safety and effectiveness of condensing the treatment for prostate cancer from 39 treatments down to 20.  “This treatment approach requires that a larger dose of radiation be delivered each day, and VMAT allows us to deliver that dose in a faster, safe and more conformal fashion,” said Dr. Fenkell.

VMAT will initially only be used for patients on the PROFIT trial but its use will be expanded to most prostate cancer cases over the coming months.  The program is also exploring its use in other sites, including gastro-intestinal and lung cancers.

For patients, this tailoring means quicker treatments and potentially reducing the risk of side effects. While Mr. Marreiros has only received the first of 39 treatments, he is very happy with the process so far.

“Everyone there is great, the therapists and nurses right up to the doctors. I am very glad that I met the people at Southlake.”

About Southlake Regional Health Centre
Southlake Regional Health Centre is a full service Hospital with a regional, clinically advanced focus. Southlake offers 370 patient beds and accommodates approximately 71,000 emergency visits, 22,000 in-patient admissions and 300,000 out-patient visits each year. Advanced, specialty services include cardiac care, cancer care, child and adolescent eating disorders, mental health services for children, paediatrics and perinatal care, thoracic and cataract surgery, and arthritis care.

Back to NEWS page