Cancer patients spared tattoos after £1.4m investment in radiotherapy technology
‘BETTER FOR PATIENTS’: The radiotherapy team. From left, Carl Horsfield, Nikki Mullins, Daniel West, Mairi Clark and Vic Sykes
By Simon Bristow, Co-Editor
People with cancer are to benefit from a £1.4m investment in radiotherapy technology at Castle Hill Hospital to remove permanent reminders of their illness.
Advanced technology called Surface Guided Radiotherapy (SGRT) is being introduced at the Queen’s Centre to enable therapeutic radiographers and the radiotherapy physics team to deliver treatment more efficiently.
Tattoos, marked on patients’ skin during the radiotherapy CT planning scan as a guide to deliver radiation to the correct part of the body, will no longer be required for some patients.
Higher principal physicist Nikki Mullins, specialist healthcare scientist in radiotherapy physics, said: “This innovative system will continuously monitor patients with high-tech infra-red cameras during treatment, ensuring sub-millimetre accuracy.
“It will enable us to deliver treatment more efficiently and remove the need for most patients to be tattooed on their skin, taking away that permanent reminder of their cancer treatment.”
Radiotherapy treatment is high-dose radiation delivered to the affected area of a patient’s body with precision and accuracy under one millimetre, protecting surrounding tissue and organs.
Radiotherapy teams using SGRT receive a 3D image of the patient lying on the Linear Accelerator (Linac) couch and then compare it to the radiotherapy CT planning scan to manoeuvre patients into the identical position to receive treatment.
Victoria Sykes, Macmillan advanced practitioner, said: “The new technology enables patients to be positioned more quickly, with less manual positioning and movement required, so it’s more comfortable for the patient.”
The new SGRT system is being introduced to treat patients with breast cancer first, with plans to offer it to those with different forms of cancer by the end of the year. Patients with certain types of cancer including breast, chest wall or abdominal have a technique known as Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH), and another benefit of SGRT is for patients to view a screen in front of them to assist them holding their breath for 20 seconds.
Appointment times are likely to be reduced because of enhanced patient positioning and the efficiency of the new SGRT system.
The SGRT has been fitted on four of the six Linacs at the Queen’s Centre. The new system will then be rolled out to the remaining two machines in the coming months, allowing more patients to benefit.