Better Radiation Treatment Technologies For Prostate Cancer Through ‘Calypso’
September 19, 2008 by Scott Wharton
Filed under Men's Health
Since My grandfather died over 15 years ago, Prostate Cancer treatments have advanced quite a bit. I never got to see him before he died but my parents told me later on that he was very ill, not only from the cancer but from radiation treatment. I’ve known a few people that have had Radiation treatment and have heard stories from others of how agonizing and energy draining it can be on them. New ways of area specific radiation treatment methods are the future of treatment Methods. It’s called the Calypso System and is currently being used at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center.
Targeting Prostate Cancer – the Calypso® System
Organ Motion and Radiation Therapy: Organ motion can be a significant barrier to delivering accurate external beam radiation therapy to the prostate. Virginia Mason offers an advanced system to deliver radiation only to the prescribed target. Our Comprehensive Prostate Cancer Clinic, part of the Floyd & Delores Jones Cancer Institute at Virginia Mason in Seattle, is the second cancer treatment facility in the Pacific Northwest to install the Calypso® 4D Localization System to target prostate cancer.
About the Calypso System: The Calypso 4D Localization System is different from other methods to prepare you for radiation treatment. The Calypso System uses radio frequency waves that allow very accurate alignment of your prostate before each treatment session and at all times during treatment delivery.
The Calypso System significantly improves the ability to target radiation only to your tumor, avoiding unnecessary radiation to healthy tissues such as the bladder and rectum.
The Calypso localization and tracking system works with three Beacon® transponders, wireless electromagnetic circuits about the size of a grain of rice, that are implanted in the prostate. The Calypso System works with the transponders to:
- Locate the tumor’s position
- Guide the therapist to set up the treatment continuously through radiation therapy
- Tailor treatment delivery to trigger the beam on and off to ensure the tumor is accurately aligned throughout the treatment.
This is a very interesting technology. Hopefully through Calypso, Patients will suffer less from the fatigue of radiation therapy.
To learn more about Calypso click here.
Block Quoted Text source: https://www.virginiamason.org/home/body.cfm?id=3224
Image Source: http://www.cancerqld.org.au
Hi,
This is very interesting – in a very short period of time I’ve started to learn just how much of a difference advanced technology makes to cancer treatment, in particular for prostate cancer (my father has it).
There is so little image-guided radiation therapy in the UK and it’s very hard to find good information about what is available. One new blog (http://radiotherapy.blog.co.uk/) is starting to get some of this information together in one place. The NHS has clearly under-invested in the newest technologies and is going to be playing catch-up for some time. Bad news for people like my father!!
Best, Cathy.