Facilities and Equipment

General Electric’s BrightSpeed Tomograph

This is a 16-cuts Tomograph capable of producing High Resolution images at optimized dosages.  Possesses all the features of a tomograph with multi-detectors and therefore can develop clinical applications, otherwise not possible to obtain with 1-cut tomographs.

Our tomograph is devoted to the creation of virtual simulations of patients. Our physicians analyze the scans obtained in patients’ simulations to carefully select the Volumes to be received during radiotherapy treatments.  In addition, the organs to be protected are chosen. That is why the images produced by the tomograph must be high-quality.

Lasers For Simulations

The LAP Lasers’ DORADO 3 System gives us the ability to create virtual simulations. Such system for simulations is one of the more advanced available.

A simulation is the first step when beginning the planning of treatment with radiotherapy. The lasers are placed on the walls and ceiling of the Simulations Room.  The laser lines are projected over the patient and used to mark the tumor’s center.  When the first topographic images are obtained, a Radio-Oncologist carefully evaluate them to localize the center of the tumor and obtain the coordenates of the precise point, thus allowing the laser to automatically locate the center of the tumor with milimetric precision.  Then the patient is marked and those marks will be used later on at the Treatment Room to be certain that the patient will remain aligned at all times.

Planning System
 
Varian’s Eclipse is a complete Planning System that simplifies the planning for any type of treatment, including 3D, IMRT (Intensity-modulated radiotherapy), RapidArc and electrons.

With a wide spectrum of functions available in Eclipse, dosimetrists, physics and doctors can effectively create and verify the best plan for their patients, while securing high standards of care and effective protocols. Eclipse gives to our staff the flexibility to personalize the planning for every patient.

It has been designed to satisfy the needs of modern health centers and the requirements of new technologies.  Eclipse supports advanced procedures like IGRT (Image-Guided Radiation Therapy) and the fusion of different types of images.  With Eclipse, it is possible to fuse different kinds of images like tomographies, MRIs and PET. This is an important tool because it actually gives doctors the ability to obtain benefits from different source images and safely locate the areas where the cancer resides.

In 3D-CRT treatment, digital images are used to adapt the radiated beam to the shape of the tumor, through the Multileaf Collimator integrated to the treatment machine. This is used in the treatment of cancers in most parts of the body.

Computerized Tomography Scans or MRI’s images can show the tumor’s anatomy and the normal adjacent structures. These images are integrated to a special computer-generated treatment plan, to produce a precise three-dimensional image of the tumor and surrounding organs.

Multiple beams of radiation can be directed to the tumor, and adjusted to the treated area´s shape from different directions. The precise dose is calculated using the three dimensions of the tumor (height, width and depth) but keeping the nearest healthy tissue safe.

Benefits

• It allows the physician to verify the dosage distribution in three dimensions, reassuring him/her that the tumor will receive the right dose in order to comply with the treatment´s goal.
• Due to the planning been done based on tomographic images, the dosage can be verified and the dose received by the healthy organs can be studied.
• The use of the Multileaf Collimator facilitates a faster treatment because it is not necessary for the technician to stay inside the room for the treatment of each and every field.

Varian’s Clinic Lineal Accelerator IX

The Lineal Accelerator was acquired brand-new, directly from the manufacturer, and it is one of the latest generation machines with the ability to produce two types of energies of photons (high and low), and a wide spectrum of different energies of electron, and can be adapted to any type of treatment.  This technology enable us to offer therapy with 3D, IMRT and because it has an OBI component (On Board Imager), IGRT (Image-Guided Radiation Therapy).  Just the same with RapidArc, one of the most advanced therapies available today.  We have been the first ones in Latin America and El Caribe to take advantage of it.

The Unit is equipped with:

• A 120-leafs Collimator; each leaf of 0.5 cms for maximum precision in the radiation distribution.
• “PORTAL VISION” technology, that allows us to perform daily evaluations with more precision when placing the fields, before each treatment.
• On Board Imager (OBI).  This technology enables the precise positioning of the patient over the treatment table, and thus achieving the goal of keeping him/her at all times, in the same position of the image used in the treatment planning.  This can only be done because OBI is attached to the Linear Accelerator and connected to the Aria Network, in order to automatically achieve the correction of the patient´s position with a very high precision.  That’s one of the benefits obtained by leaving OBI attached, when producing the planning image.  This is done before every radiotherapy session and therefore, allows us to offer IGRT (Image-Guided Radiation Therapy).

High-dose-rate (HDR) Brachytherapy Unit

High-dose-rate (HDR) Brachytherapy is applied through an 18-channels microselectron machine, supported by an ONCENTRA planning system, both brand NUCLETRON.  Patients are generally treated as Outpatients and it takes just a few minutes. This treatment can be interstitial, intercavitary or intraluminal.

Another Brachytherapy variant available at HOPE is low-dose-rate Brachytherapy (LDR) used with radioactive seed´s implantation inside organs or tumors. One of the most frequent uses of this treatment is for prostatic carcinoma in early stages.