Clinical Centre Lüneburg modernises CT room of Radiation Therapy department with patient alignment lasers of LAP
 

The Radiation Therapy CT room of the Clinical Centre Lüneburg has been refurbished. By using laser technology, the patients will be placed in the right position for therapy faster and with higher precision. This way, the radiation exposure of healthy tissue is reduced and the throughput of the therapy rooms is optimised.

Using lasers for exact positioning of patients during radiation therapy is a common procedure today. The centre of the tumor and the intersections of the radiation fields are displayed on the skin of the patient by laser and marked manually.

Precision is most important in state-of-the-art radiation therapy. Johann Kindlein, Head of Medical Department at LAP, the manufacturer of patient alignment systems in Lüneburg, explains that "the accuracy of the patient alignment is most important, to prevent the nonessential exposure of healthy tissue."

At the beginning of a therapy, the patient is placed on the CT couch in a suitable position for treatment using supports and immobilisation devices. Lasers project the coordinates zero point on the skin of the patient. The intersections of the laser lines are marked, then the scan takes place.

From the CT data, the position and the size of the tumor are identified. Based on this follows therapy planning. For marking the tumor position, the patient is placed in the start position again, using the marks on his skin. Then, the couch and/or the lasers are moved to the coordinates of the tumor′s centre. This time, the position of the tumor is marked on the patient′s skin. Using these marks, the patient will be placed in the therapy room later, to hold the focus of the linear accelerator in the center of the tumor and expose surrounding healthy tissue as little as possible.

The importance of precise alignment is obvious, if you consider that the patient′s treatment takes several weeks, exposing him to the necessary dose not once, but in several so-called fractions. Each session needs an exact position for treatment.

Strictly commercial, the investment is money well spent, as a lot of time is saved compared to other procedures for patient alignment. This means the utilisation of the therapy rooms with CT and linear accelerator is optimised.