Healthcare Industry News: Image-Guided Radiation Therapy
News Release - May 30, 2006
University Hospitals of Cleveland Receives $250,000 Grant for Breast Cancer Research from Komen Foundation
Funds will support development of novel device to improve treatmentCLEVELAND, May 30 (HSMN NewsFeed) -- Researchers at the Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals of Cleveland have received a $250,000 grant from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation for the development of a new device to enhance breast cancer radiation treatment.
The two-year grant will support research into the development of a high- precision positioning system for image-guided breast cancer radiation. Led by Jason Sohn, PhD, in the department of radiation oncology at the Ireland Cancer Center, researchers are developing a novel optical device to increase the accuracy of daily breast radiation therapy.
"This new device promises to enhance our abilities to target radiation with even more precision," says Janice Lyons, MD, breast cancer radiation oncologist at the Ireland Cancer Center. "The potential impact could be immediate enhanced treatment and added reassurance for patients."
"This new instrument will also improve patient safety for women who have undergone lumpectomies," says Dr. Sohn, who is also Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "We are pleased to have the support of the Komen Foundation to potentially take breast cancer therapy to the next level."
Radiation therapy for breast cancer following a lumpectomy involves daily exposure to external radiation beams over a course of six weeks. Based on a scanned laser image, the new breast positioning system can improve treatment by scanning the affected area daily and detecting changes in the location and shape of the cancer target during the course of treatment.
Breast conserving therapy involves a lumpectomy followed by external beam radiation and it has a comparable cure rate to a mastectomy. Both therapies have about 90% non-recurrence of cancer as opposed to 60% using lumpectomy alone.
Despite the advantages of breast conserving therapy, many patients who are candidates actually elect to undergo a mastectomy because BCT requires a prolonged treatment regimen of up to seven weeks.
To encourage more patients to consider BCT, researchers have proposed an accelerated course of partial breast irradiation (APBI), requiring fewer daily treatments, but at higher doses. For higher daily doses to be effective, radiation treatment fields are custom designed to conform to the target lumpectomy site. The positioning system is expected to make APBI a serious option for a larger patient population.
Unlike most image-guided systems that use additional radiation to image the breast, this new device produces optical images without using radiation. Through the comparison of daily images to a reference image, the breast can be accurately re-positioned for treatment. The images can be used to develop a new treatment plan if necessary, a feature that will ensure the prescribed dose of radiation targets cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue.
"The Ireland Cancer Center is committed to bringing research from the bench to the bedside," says Stanton Gerson, MD, Director of the Ireland Cancer Center. "This generous grant from the Komen Foundation is yet another opportunity for our researchers to put that mission into practice."
Source: University Hospitals of Cleveland
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