Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/79506
Patients take comfort in knowing they receive one-on-one education and high quality care from Peter Laye, MD, and the comprehensive cancer team at MetroHealth. labor intensive process where every pos- sible beam configuration and accessory is measured in a water tank and modeled to be used for patient treatment planning. "This will double our capacity and eliminate having to delay treatment or reschedule patients if a machine is not available," says Dr. Kulasekere. New Big-Bore CT MetroHealth has also replaced an existing CT scanner with a new Philips Brilliance Big-Bore CT Simulator. The latest in CT technology, the Big-Bore CT can accommodate patients up to 440 pounds and those in immobiliza- tion devices, without compromising image quality. While the high-quality, high-resolution images of the Big-Bore CT aid in identifying the precise location of a tumor, one huge improvement is the machine's respiratory correlated imaging. This allows physicians to assess tumor movement and shifts in tumor location during movements resulting from a patient's breathing. The result is more accurate target treatment. "Our new CT can obtain images with unparalleled speed and clarity," says Dr. Laye. "The new big-bore CT also has the capability of helping the physician observe the real time motion of a tumor and draw a target volume with higher precision to encompass the motion of the tumor, before shipping the image over for planning. This saves time and increases accuracy in planning," Dr. Kulasekere explains. New HDR Brachytherapy MetroHealth's new high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy system deliv- ers HDR radiation on an outpatient basis, such as for patients with various gynecologic tumors. "We have invested heavily in high dose rate brachytherapy primarily for treating vaginal, endometrial and cervical cancers and would like to eventually expand its use as an option for treating breast cancer," says Dr. Laye. HDR brachytherapy primarily delivers radiation using a small radioactive source SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2012 ■ MDNEWS.COM ■ MD NEWS Cleveland-Akron-Canton | 15