Released on = July 29, 2007, 7:53 pm

Press Release Author = VantageOncology

Industry = Healthcare

Press Release Summary = The treatment of cancer and cancerous tumors has advanced a
great deal in the last several years. Survival rates are much higher than they were
just a decade ago thanks to advances in medical technology, diagnosis, and treatment
which give radiation oncologists.


Press Release Body = The treatment of cancer and cancerous tumors has advanced a
great deal in the last several years. Survival rates are much higher than they were
just a decade ago thanks to advances in medical technology, diagnosis, and treatment
which give radiation oncologists the tools needed in the quest to reduce
cancer-related mortality until it is no longer a threat.

Among the advances in radiotherapy are methods such as IGRT (Image Guided Radiation
Therapy), IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy), and TomoTherapy.

IGRT

Image-guided radiation therapy (or image-guided radiotherapy) is radiation treatment
delivered with the guidance of imaging equipment.

Cancerous tumors can sometimes move due to a patient's normal activities or just
from being moved around the treatment table. By taking an image of the tumor just
prior to treatment, the tumor's location can be precisely confirmed, allowing the
delivery of radiation to be delivered directly to the tumor instead of to
surrounding healthy tissue.

IMRT

Intensity modulated radiotherapy uses a system of shields in addition to other
advanced methodology to protect healthy tissue, maximizing radiation delivery to the
tumor.
IMRT delivers thousands of tiny beams from different angles, delivering high doses
that are concave in shape, sparing normal tissue that is extremely close to and
surrounded by a tumor. This is extremely effective for small, stationary tumors that
are surrounded by large amounts of healthy tissue, which can include tumors in the
brain, head and neck, prostate, or spinal cord.

TomoTherapy

TomoTherapy delivers a very sophisticated IMRT to combine treatment planning, CT
image-guided patient positioning, and treatment delivery into a single integrated
system. TomoTherapy allows the radiation oncologist to adjust the radiation beam to
precisely target the tumor according to its size, shape, and location.

Tumor position can be verified before each treatment session, allowing on-the-fly
adjustments to ensure accurate radiation delivery.

The goal of advancing radiotherapy technology, as it has always been in oncology, is
to deliver lethal radiation directly to the tumor, spare as much healthy tissue as
possible, and decrease the impact on a patient's quality of life.

Web Site = http://www.vantageoncology.com/

Contact Details = 880 Apollo Street
(310)335-4000
(310) 335-4099
vantageoncology@gmail.com