New, state-of-the-art technology is providing hope for patients with complex cancers and difficult treatment plans. The Queen’s Medical Center is the first hospital in Hawai‘i to use this equipment known as the HyperArc TrueBeam, with capabilities for frameless stereotactic radiosurgery. It is a breakthrough in radiation oncology that is less intrusive and provides personalized treatment plans.
Radiation therapy is often part of a cancer patient’s journey. More than half of those diagnosed with cancer receive it.1 It includes high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Traditional therapy can have drawbacks and unpleasant side effects. The HyperArc TrueBeam combines sophisticated imaging and alignment to ensure a quick and precise delivery dose of radiation. It has the capability to treat cancers such as pancreas, paraspinal muscles, lung,liver, breast, and prostate, as well as head, neck, spinal, gastrointestinal, and gynecologic tumors.
The HyperArc TrueBeam makes the patient experience of receiving radiation therapy more comfortable and offers great benefits, including:
- Quick and Fast: This new technology produces 3D images for targeting tumors in 60 percent less time. Treatments that once took 10 to 30 minutes can be completed in under two minutes. Not only does this allow patients to move along with their day, but it also lowers the risk of side effects. The less time that a patient needs to hold still, the more accurate the treatment is likely to be. Many patients share that they feel less anxious due to the faster procedure.
- Fewer Treatments: Instead of 20 to 40 sessions with conventional radiation therapy, the HyperArc TrueBeam is often able to achieve the same results with just one to five sessions, depending on the type of tumor.
- Pinpoint Accuracy: This feature is what sets the HyperArc TrueBeam apart. It can treat a patient’s tumor from almost any angle with submillimeter precision. This accuracy spares the healthy tissue surrounding the tumor with 25 percent less exposure to x-rays than older technology. The equipment performs an internal check every 10 milliseconds during the entire treatment. This allows physicians to manage complex cases such as lung tumors, which can move while the body is breathing, or brain metastases and small brain lesions.
The Queen’s Cancer Center and radiation oncology team is committed to patient-centric care. This investment in advanced technology provides safe and accurate radiation therapy along with hope to patients suffering from complicated diagnoses.
