One of the main challenges that physicians have faced in delivering radiation therapy to cancer patients has been the tumor motion that naturally occurs during and between treatments.
"Radiation therapy needs to hit a target that’s inside the body. People breathe, blood flows, we move, we flinch. So radiation therapy needs to hit the target in a moving person and that has always been a challenge," said Lucius Doh, M.D., radiation oncologist.
It’s been a challenge until now, that is. A sophisticated new solution exists in the form of the Trilogy Stereotactic System. Trilogy pinpoints tumors with digital precision and positions them in the high-dose area, negating any internal organ movement.
"Trilogy really is a marriage of proven radiation therapy with the latest in computer and imaging technology such that we can basically target any tumor in the body and hit it with amazing force and accuracy," said Dr. Doh.
"It gives us a wide variety of treatment capabilities and a broad range of tasks we can perform," said Jeff Campbell, medical physicist.
You can find this state-of-the-art system at the INTEGRIS Cancer Institute of Oklahoma at Southwest Medical Center. Benefits to patients are significant – it means the sparing of more healthy tissue, fewer side effects and reduced treatment times.
"We were the first in Oklahoma City to have IMRT treatment for patients and the Trilogy is the next generation in our arsenal of treatment weapons," said Cathy Valentine, radiation therapist.
In Oklahoma, INTEGRIS Health is the only facility offering patients the Trilogy Stereotactic System and a treatment for tumors where before there was none. It’s one reason why at INTEGRIS Health, you’ll find more survivors of more kinds of cancer than anywhere else in the state. The INTEGRIS Cancer Institute of Oklahoma.