Prior to the advent of IGRT, radiation oncologists had to contend with variations in patient positioning and with respiratory motion by treating a larger margin of healthy tissue around the tumor. IGRT enables doctors to further minimize the volume of healthy tissue exposed to the treatment beam. Potentially, image data from IGRT tools like the On-Board Imager device will be used to note changes in tumor size and shape over a course of treatment, and make real-time adaptations to the treatment plan.

The clinic's new treatment machine is also equipped with a beam-shaping 120-leaf multileaf collimator for intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) as well as a PortalVision^TM device for monitoring and verifying treatment accuracy.


According to Viv Ali, the new equipment has boosted staff morale within Christchurch Hospital's radiation oncology service. "The morale is great in the department right now," she says. "We're fully staffed with radiation therapists, physicists and oncologists and we're now in a position to develop more advanced treatments utilizing our new technology, such as intensity modulated radiation therapy and respiratory gated treatments."

She said she and her colleagues recently hosted a multidisciplinary workshop which allowed their fellow radiation therapists, radiation oncologists and physicists in New Zealand to see the On-Board Imager device in operation.

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