Hyderabad-based Yashoda Cancer Institute becomes the first institute in Asia to successfully install RapidArc facility. It is a major advancement in technology from conventional Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy Technology (IMRT) which improves dose conformity while significantly shortening treatment times compared to conventional IMRT techniques.
It is a revolution in radiotherapy delivery system as it will change the way radiotherapy is planned and delivered. This high throughput machine will treat more patients in a day than any other machine as the time required for each patient will be less than 2 minutes compared to 25-35 minutes used for conventional IMRT treatments. Shortened delivery time will lead to less patient discomfort, less patient movement and hence less error in delivering radiation. Faster treatment also contributes to precision by reducing the time for motion within anatomical structures. The technique reduces the probability of intrafractional tumour movements caused by the patient moving during treatment.
RapidArc is eight times faster than any other radiation therapy available today.
Current day IMRT consists of treatment using multiple fixed beams with specified orientations. For example, to treat the head and neck cancer, usually five to seven specific angled beams are used, each delivering a fraction of the total radiation for that day. Since these fields are limited to certain angles, the ability to avoid or minimize radiation to normal tissue is also limited. Conventional IMRT treatments are slower and more difficult for radiotherapy technologists because they target tumours using a complex sequence of fixed beams from multiple angles.
Shortened delivery time has several other advantages. There have been some interesting literature regarding the treatment time and tumor cell kill. It has been predicted that the longer the treatment time less is the tumor kill.
Increase in treatment time is also directly correlated with probability of developing second cancers especially in pediatric population. The decreased time in RapidArc may result in less leakage and scattered radiation than in the case of conventional IMRT treatments. This makes it safer for pediatric population.
RapidArc radiotherapy technology advances the standard of care even in complex treatment plans. For example, in a case of multi-target cancer of the nasopharynx or oropharynx, RapidArc plans were found to be equivalent or better at target coverage, and superior in protecting critical structures including the spinal cord, the brain stem, the eyes, the optic nerve and chiasm, the parotid glands and the brain.