Radiation treatments carried out at the Northeast Cancer Centre are now more precise thanks to a new piece of equipment that was installed and went into operation in early December.
The $3 million TrueBeam Radiotherapy System's cost was covered by Cancer Care Ontario, and the $500,000 bill for renovations to the radiation bunker was picked up by the Northern Cancer Foundation.
The equipment has advanced imaging capabilities and will provide fast and image-guided treatment. It allows physicians to focus the radiation with a very high degree of accuracy.
“The excitement of this new machine is that it allows us to better image the patient's tumour as well as the normal tissues at the time of the treatment delivery so we can be sparing as much as we can,” said Dr. Ryan Carlson, a radiation oncologist with the cancer centre.
“It also has other features such as a bed that can move in all degrees of freedom so that we can shift the patient as we need to to get that tumour right in the exact spot that we're needing to.”
With radiation treatments becoming more and more precise, the number of treatments needed has been cut back, meaning it's less of a burden on patients' lives, he said.
“That was using the existing equipment,” Carlson said. “This new equipment allows us to have more precision with that and more confidence with those lower (number of) treatments.”
Northern Cancer Foundation executive director Tannys Laughren said the foundation is “extremely proud” of supporting this new equipment.
“Our goal at the foundation is to ensure that the patients have a better journey … and the patients are well taken care of,” she said. “We believe that this equipment will do so.”
Check out Health Science's North's video about the new equipment:
