Published: March 07, 2009 11:33 pm      

St. Joseph adds new technology

Like the latest smart bomb used by the military, St. Joseph Hospital is using new technology that zeroes in on cancerous cells.

St. Joseph Hospital is the second hospital in Indiana to use the state of the art RapidArc Radiotherapy Technology and Dynamic Targeting Image-Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) from the Varian Medical Systems.

Doctors are able to program the system to deliver radiation to a specific point and the RapidArc technology provides the treatment guided by a computer.

The local hospital invested $5 million in the technology and constructed a new self-contained room for the unit.

The new technology provides up-to-the-minute images of tumors so they can be targeted with sub-millimeter accuracy. It can also automatically track tumor movement during and between treatments and even compensate for respiration.

RapidArc and IGRT technology have now been used for the treatment of prostate, head and neck, lung, brain, spine, bone, gynecological and soft tissue cancers.

Daniel Sturgeon, 69, is one of the first patients to be treated with the new technology for prostate cancer.

He was diagnosed in December and was advised by Dr. Christopher Leagre to wait until the new technology became available in February.

Sturgeon has received nine of 40 expected radiation treatments, and is not suffering any adverse side effects.

“I take my shoes and jeans off and get on the table,” he said of the treatment. “I’m normally in and out of the hospital in 20 minutes.”

To make sure the machine is positioned correctly each time, a special platform was built for Sturgeon. He has pinpoint dots on both sides and the center of his abdomen to align the equipment.

An emotional Sturgeon said it was scary when he was told about the cancer.

“Cancer is a bad word,” he said. “I never had any second thoughts about the use of the new technology. Dr. Leagre said I would be fine.”

Leagre said in the past, doctors treated a large area with radiation because they were unable to pinpoint where the tumor was located.

He said another problem was that patients were forced to lay down on a hard table surface for as long as 40 minutes and would shift positions.

“This machine has an onboard imager,” Leagre explained. “The patient is on the table, the x-ray comes up on a computer screen in seconds instead of minutes.”

The benefit is treatment with RapidArc is quick, resulting in a shorter treatment time and less likelihood of movement by the patient.

The part of the equipment that delivers the radiation treatment rotates over the patient and is able to pinpoint the position of the tumor and the dosage amount at several different positions.

“This is a perfect delivery treatment,” Leagre said. “It cuts the treatment time by 50 percent.

“It is a quicker, better treatment, with higher cure rates and fewer side effects. We’re fortunate to have a cutting-edge tool here in Kokomo.”

Ken de la Bastide can be reached at (765) 454 -8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com