ATLANTA and MANNHEIM, Germany /PRNewswire/ -- A 63-year-old male with prostate cancer is the first patient in Europe to receive radiotherapy treatment planned with a new version of Monaco® software optimized for Elekta VMAT. Using the arc-based Elekta VMAT delivery method, Monaco planning dictates how the radiation dose should be applied -- its distribution and strength on the target. The result is a therapy that not only is very rapid with VMAT, but one that also is fine-tuned to treat cancer and avoid healthy normal tissues.

The patient received his Elekta VMAT treatment at University Medical Center (UMC) Mannheim (Germany) in January. Total VMAT delivery was four minutes, while conventional delivery would have taken 6-8 minutes, says UMC Vice Chairman, Prof. Frank Lohr.

"Monaco planning will bring VMAT into the radiation therapy field on a broad basis," Dr. Lohr says. "With Elekta VMAT and Monaco, and the full hardware and software packages running on these systems, we will no longer have any resource constraints in delivering the most complex treatments to patients immediately."
Delivery and planning fully optimized

With Elekta VMAT, the treatment gantry -- the part of the machine from which radiation beams originate -- is in constant motion, with single or multiple gantry arc(s) sweeping around the patient. During these arc(s), the radiation intensity is continuously varied and modulated. This ensures a computer assisted delivery, according to the anatomical and tumor characteristics of the patient and the dose prescription.

Using the dynamic gantry arcs, Elekta VMAT results in significantly reduced treatment times, while providing a more personalized treatment.

In conventional "fixed gantry" therapy, the gantry makes several stops, which add to the overall treatment time and result in a longer session.

To improve Elekta VMAT planning, Elekta have designed enhanced Monaco treatment planning software for a rotating gantry technique. Monaco treatment planning software has been used for many years in fixed gantry IMRT, and its Monte Carlo algorithm is widely considered the gold standard for dose calculation. Monaco VMAT benefits from the same superior Monte Carlo dose calculations as do fixed gantry methods. While planning treatments with Monaco VMAT, clinicians can use the Monte Carlo dose engine to accurately predict how much of a proposed radiation dose the target and normal tissues will receive. From there, they can fine tune or optimize the planned dose and radiobiological parameters to ensure the patient receives the most therapeutic Elekta VMAT treatment possible.

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