Patient handling system for carbon ion beam scanning therapy

Abstract

Our institution established a new treatment facility for carbon ion beam scanning therapy in 2010. The major advantages of scanning beam treatment compared to the passive beam treatment are the following: high dose conformation with less excessive dose to the normal tissues, no bolus compensator and patient collimator/ multi‐leaf collimator, better dose efficiency by reducing the number of scatters. The new facility was designed to solve several problems encountered in the existing facility, at which several thousand patients were treated over more than 15 years. Here, we introduce the patient handling system in the new treatment facility. The new facility incorporates three main systems, a scanning irradiation system (S‐IR), treatment planning system (TPS), and patient handling system (PTH). The PTH covers a wide range of functions including imaging, geometrical/position accuracy including motion management (immobilization, robotic arm treatment bed), layout of the treatment room, treatment workflow, software, and others. The first clinical trials without respiratory gating have been successfully started. The PTH allows a reduction in patient stay in the treatment room to as few as 7 min. The PTH plays an important role in carbon ion beam scanning therapy at the new institution, particularly in the management of patient handling, application of image‐guided therapy, and improvement of treatment workflow, and thereby allows substantially better treatment at minimum cost.PACS numbers: 87.56.‐v; 87.57.‐s; 87.55.‐x

Effect of secondary particles on image quality of dynamic flat panels in carbon ion scanning beam treatment

“…This system provides continuous acquisition with or without an implanted fiducial marker using two oblique radiography fluoroscopic units. 19 The respiratory-gating system consists of a pair of DFPDs, X-ray tubes and acquisition controller.…”

“…17 To solve these problems, radiography fluoroscopic imaging systems have been integrated with the medical linac or particle beam irradiation system to capture tumour position in real time. 11,18,19 Tumour-tracking-computing accuracy is strongly dependent on the quality of radiographs, particularly in marker-less tumour tracking. 20 It is well known that secondary particles such as proton, neutron and prompt g-ray are induced from patients during particle beam irradiation.…”

Comparison of carbon-ion passive and scanning irradiation for pancreatic cancer

“…The scanning delivery system was developed to avoid these issues. Our facility began providing scanning irradiation without respiratory gating in 2011, with good clinical results [6].…”

Effects of a difference in respiratory cycle between treatment planning and irradiation for phase-controlled rescanning and carbon pencil beam scanning

“…Since 1994, our centre at Heavy Ion Medical Accelerator in Chiba, Japan, has treated over 7000 cancer patients using carbon ion passive beams [1][2][3]. In 2011, we constructed a new treatment facility for carbon ion pencil beam scanning (C-PBS) as an extension of the existing treatment facility and successfully completed the first clinical trials for the head and pelvic regions with non-respiratory-gated irradiation at the end of 2011 [4,5]. We are now preparing to start the next series of clinical trials for the thoracic and abdominal regions.…”