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This article highlights some examples of how clinicians are taking
advantage of RapidArc technology to provide patients with
fast, accurate, conformal treatments.

Head and neck cancer

At Cancer Care of Western New York, Dhiren Shah, MD, used RapidArc to treat a case of cancer that had started in his patient’s tonsil and spread to the lymph nodes. His clinical team compared a RapidArc treatment plan with one for conventional IMRT and found that the RapidArc plan spared more of the patient’s salivary glands, as well as the rest of his oral cavity. Yet the “beamon” time for the RapidArc treatments was less than two minutes.

“Prior forms of radiation therapy might have severely compromised his salivary function,” says Shah. “With RapidArc treatments, we have a good chance of avoiding or minimizing these kinds of debilitating side effects.” James Rembert, MD, radiation oncologist at the Alta Bates Summit Comprehensive Cancer Center in Berkeley, California, agrees. He recently used RapidArc technology to treat a tumor that was right behind his patient’s larynx. “The larynx moves when you swallow,” says Rembert. “A person can go a minute or two without swallowing, but not a whole lot more than that. So RapidArc allows us to deliver better treatments for tumors that move with swallowing. I would say it’s possible to deliver an entire
treatment during a time period that is short enough for the patient to refrain from swallowing.”

“A person can go a minute or two without swallowing, but not a whole lot more than that. So RapidArc allows us to deliver better treatments for tumors that move with swallowing.” James Rembert, MD, Alta Bates Summit Comprehensive Cancer Center

Doctors at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taiwan began RapidArc treatments in February of this year, and by August they had treated more than 300 patients, the majority with head and neck cancers. “Our experience is that the dose distribution with RapidArc is easily equivalent to the best seven-field IMRT treatments, but the beam delivery time is less than three minutes,” says Ji-Hong Hong, MD, director of the hospital’s department of radiation oncology. “In particular, the sparing of the parotid glands and other important organs such as the brain stem is excellent. “We have long waiting lists, and we are now able to treat five patients per hour with RapidArc, including beam-on time and setup. The clinicians benefit because we don’t have to compromise the field angle due to long delivery time, while the patients feel far more comfortable during the treatment course.”

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Patients in North Wales gain access to RapidArc treatments

Glan Clywd Hospital will soon offer local cancer patients across North Wales advanced radiotherapy treatments using RapidArc radiotherapy technology on two new treatment machines. When the Clinac linear accelerators with RapidArc are installed, the hospital will become the first in Wales to offer this form of radiotherapy treatment. The new machines form part of a multimillion-pound initiative to replace aging machines in the hospital, which serves a population of more than 700,000
across North Wales.

“Our current treatment machines have been used continuously since we opened 10 years ago, and they do not allow us to perform the most modern and advanced treatments,” says Jaap Vaarkamp, PhD, head
of radiotherapy physics at Glan Clwyd Hospital. “The On-Board Imager® device will enable us to treat more precisely, and RapidArc is very exciting because it makes IMRT much quicker to deliver. We are currently only able to use IMRT on one of our machines, so this is a major step forward.”

Nest Bowl, Glan Clywd radiotherapy services manager, says the investment project was given the go ahead by the Welsh Assembly last year as part of a
10-year strategy to upgrade radiotherapy provision

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Cancer patients in the south of England could benefit from a faster, more accurate form of radiotherapy.

RapidArc has been available at the NHS Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology in Merseyside for more than a year and is now being introduced in a private London clinic which can treat some NHS patients.

The Harley Street Cancer Centre is the first in the capital to make use of the new technology by installing two machines.

RapidArc uses a unique tumour mapping system to deliver highly-targeted cancer therapy, moving around the tumour at 360 degrees.

Patients may only need two minutes of treatment rather than the 20 minutes they would face with older systems.

As well as being faster, RapidArc is so specific that it causes far less damage to healthy tissue near the tumour.

For example, prostate cancer patients frequently suffer radiation damage to their bladder and rectum but the new system cuts down the risk of harm in these areas.

NHS patients can be referred to the Harley Street Cancer Centre if their specialist agrees they need the treatment, or people can pay privately.

The centre recently became the first hospital in the UK to install the robotic CyberKnife system for tumour surgery.

Chief executive Neil Buckley said: "We now have the most comprehensive cancer care service in Europe as we treat every type of cancer for every age. As well as all the new technology, we are growing our network of diagnostic and treatment centres around London so that patients can get fast access to see one of our 700 top consultants closer to where they live or work."