TomoTherapy, a Targeted Approach to Cancer Therapy
The effectiveness of the platform has been proven in cancer centers across the country. Patients who have received the treatment experience few complications, and the imaging capabilities of the system allow for improved monitoring of potential tumor re-growth. Dr. Eric Rost of The Cancer Treatment Center Southeast Regional Hospital in Florida found, “The advantages of TomoTherapy are twofold. One, not only can we combine and conform the radiation to a precision that we were never able to before. But we also can image and apply the radiation in a dynamic field, so that each treatment is assured to be correct.” And Dr. Patrick Kupelian of the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Orlando said, “For the treatments that we’ve delivered it’s been very successful so far. In the short term I think we’ll be able to demonstrate that the side effects associated with treatment are lower, and hopefully long term we will be able to demonstrate that the cure rates are better with this type of device.”
Patients report far less radiation related side effects, and quicker recoveries. “âÂ?¦the side effects were so minimal I was able to continue working, continue my life with very few side effects, if I had received conventional radio therapy I had been so sick I wouldn’t have been able to work or perform in my normal functions of daily living.”
Doctors feel that this device is analogous to the first microscopes. It is allowing them to see things they have never been able to see before. And that in turn is helping to develop new treatments that are turning many cancer victims into cancer survivors.