Members of the Radiation Oncology team at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Waterford with the newly installed linear accelerator.
The Radiation Oncology team at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Waterford is now using one of the most advanced linear accelerators in the region to target tumors.
The recent installation of the Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator (linac) ensures that patients needing radiation therapy to fight tumors throughout the body will benefit from the same state-of-the-art equipment also used at Smilow Cancer Hospital locations at Greenwich, Guilford, New Haven and Hamden.
“This is world-class care close to home for all our patients in eastern Connecticut, western Rhode Island and beyond,” said Michelle Evangelisti, Smilow Waterford chief radiation therapist.
In the coming months, a second, older linear accelerator at Smilow Waterford will be replaced with the Varian TrueBeam model.
Among the new linac’s many advantages is the ability to track body movements during treatments. “Accuracy is definitely improved with this newer model,” said Jeffrey Snyder, chief physicist at Smilow Waterford. “For example, a patient with a lung tumor still breathes during treatment, but now we can monitor and track the breathing, so we can see the precise location of the tumor. We can turn the beam off when the tumor goes out of the target field and turn it back on when it’s in the target. This can help reduce dosage to healthy tissue.”
In some cases, treatment regimens may be shorter, as increased accuracy can enable a more powerful dose to certain tumors.
Greater accuracy also means “less discomfort for patients and a greater quality of life,” said Joshua Scott, Smilow Waterford lead medical dosimetrist.
Other advantages of the new linac include more options on the treatment table, which enhance treatment precision. The linac’s radiation beam can rotate 360 degrees around the patient, which means radiation can hit the tumor from all angles, increasing efficiency while reducing exposure to healthy tissue.
The new machine also eliminates the need for skin tattoos previously used with some patients to help identify tumor location. These tattoos can last a lifetime and leave a permanent reminder of a patient’s cancer journey.
The Smilow Waterford team expects to treat up to 25 patients a day with the new machine.
