At the Athen Medical Center, the first patient has been treated with SBRT and simultaneous use of Raypilot® System from Micropos Medical.
As previously announced, the installation was done about three weeks ago in what the company calls a “Try-Before-Buy”. The hospital has purchased consumables and where the company lends the hardware in an evaluation before purchase.
Dr Georgios Kritselis who is the Radiation Oncologist in charge at the Athens Medical Center and who has long experience in treating prostate cancer with radiation therapy, says:
“It’s a great pleasure that we now have started with intrafraction motion management for our SBRT prostate patients. Raypilot gives us confidence in using small margins around the prostate to save healthy surrounding tissue, deliver the dose as planned, and minimize side effects. This precise method enables us to deliver the treatment in only five days instead of several weeks. This is really an improvement in the quality of life for my patients.
By placing the Raypilot catheter we can adopt a urethra-sparing approach, so it’s easily identified during contouring and easily matched before every treatment CBCT.
In terms of contouring, we can reduce quite a lot of our plan margins and deliver higher radiation doses, reducing toxicity rates. During every treatment, we can control in real-time intrafraction tiny drifts of the prostate and immediately stop the beam if those drifts exceed our treatment margins. This approach increases precision and ensures that the radiation dose is delivered to the right area, which ensures better tumor control. Raypilot technology provides us peace of mind and we are absolutely confident and sure about our treatment, and this feeling is also transmitted to our patients. We make him feel that we provide him with a unique and tailored treatment”.
More patients are being recruited and the trial will continue during the summer. The potential for both increased quality and reduced costs is great in a country like Greece, where many patients travel to the larger cities from the countryside and islands to receive their treatment, says the company’s CEO Thomas Lindström.