UC Davis Acquires New Linear Accelerator to Treat Veterinary Cancer Patients
Image courtesy of UC Davis.
UC Davis press release- October 31, 2013 – In a promising development for cancer patients, the University of California, Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital has acquired a TrueBeam linear accelerator, an innovative system that enables expanded options to treat cancer with image-guided radiotherapy. The new system replaces a previous linear accelerator the hospital has had for the past nine years.
The TrueBeam system allows UC Davis radiation oncologists to deliver more powerful cancer treatments with pinpoint accuracy and precision. It uniquely integrates new imaging and motion management technologies within a sophisticated new architecture that makes it possible to deliver treatments more quickly while monitoring and compensating for tumor motion, opening the door to new possibilities for a wide range of treatment options.
“With a built-in CT, the TrueBeam is a major step up from our last linear accelerator,” said Dr. Michael Kent, acting director of the UC Davis Center for Companion Animal Health and a radiation oncologist. “It enables us to treat even the most challenging cases with unprecedented speed and precision. With a broad spectrum of new capabilities, this new linear accelerator makes it possible for us to offer faster, more targeted treatments to tumors, even as they move and change over time.”
Faster Treatments
With dose delivery rates that are 40–140 percent higher than previous linear accelerators, the TrueBeam system can complete a treatment commensurately faster. This makes it possible to offer greater patient safety by shortening treatments, and to improve precision by leaving less time for tumor motion during dose delivery. “Intelligent” automation further speeds treatments with an up to fivefold reduction in the number of steps needed for image guidance and dose delivery. Simple treatments that once took 15 minutes or more can now be completed in less than two minutes once the patient is in position.
“These are significant reductions in treatment time,” said Dr. Kent. “Patients will spend less time anesthetized, making their treatments far more safe.”
Enhanced Precision
The precision of the TrueBeam system is measured in increments of less than a millimeter. This accuracy is made possible by the system’s sophisticated architecture, which synchronizes imaging, patient positioning, motion management, beam shaping and dose delivery, performing accuracy checks every ten milliseconds throughout the entire treatment. Critical data points are measured continually as a treatment progresses, ensuring that the system maintains a “true isocenter,” or focal point of treatment.
Faster Imaging at Lower Doses
TrueBeam imaging technology can produce the three-dimensional images used to fine-tune tumor targeting.
“Imaging is an essential part of modern-day, targeted radiotherapy,” explained Dr. Kent. “This machine allows us to choose an imaging mode that minimizes the amount of X-rays needed to generate an image—and that’s good for our patients.”
The TrueBeam system can be used for a variety of radiotherapy treatments.
“With the TrueBeam, we can select the optimal treatment for every type of cancer,” said Dr. Kent. “This is a breakthrough that allows us to bring a wider spectrum of advanced radiotherapy treatment options to many more patients. It represents a quantum leap in our ability to fight cancer. I am so pleased that this new linear accelerator now allows UC Davis offer the most advanced radiotherapy treatments anywhere in veterinary medicine.”
Along with the medical oncology, surgical oncology, diagnostic imaging, and pathology services, the UC Davis Radiation Oncology Service works to provide comprehensive cancer care to over 1,500 dogs, cats, horses and other animals diagnosed with cancer each year.
About the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital
The William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital at the University of California, Davis—a unit of the School of Veterinary Medicine—provides state-of-the-art clinical care while serving as the primary clinical teaching experience for DVM students and post graduate veterinarian residents. The VMTH treats more than 45,000 animals a year, ranging from cats and dogs to horses, cows and exotic species. To learn more about the VMTH, please go to http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmth. Timely news updates can be received on its Facebook (www.facebook.com/ucdavisvetmed) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/ucdavisvetmed) pages.
