What is Surface Guided Radiation Therapy?
Radiation Therapy is one of the most common treatments for cancer, in which high-energy radiation is administered to the body to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells. It can be a stand-alone treatment, or is commonly used in combination with chemotherapy, surgery, or hormone therapy. About half of all cancer patients receive some type of radiation therapy during the course of their cancer treatment*.
As part of your radiation therapy treatment, your therapists need to ensure that you remain in the correct position so that the radiation beams reach the right place. One way of achieving this is to acquire additional images using X-rays, increasing your radiation dose and treatment time. They might also use additional ‘immobilization devices’, designed to hold areas of your body in place for the treatment duration. These devices can be uncomfortable, which in some settings can make it more difficult to stay still, risking exposing healthy tissue in your body to additional radiation.
Surface Guided Radiation Therapy (SGRT) is becoming increasingly widely used for accurately monitoring a patient’s position throughout their entire radiation treatment. By tracking your skin surface using safe, normal light, stereo camera units and sophisticated computer software, SGRT makes sure you are in the right position, with high accuracy. If you move, the radiation can be automatically paused until you are back in position. SGRT can be used for most types of radiation therapy.
To learn more, visit the Vision RT website by clicking here. (Link opens in new tab)
*Data from US cancer.gov website.