The Marin Cancer Institute has added a new million-dollar plus CT Simulator that gives patients an extra edge in their fight against cancer.

CT stands for Computed Tomography, a method of collecting image data from the body at different angles to formulate cross-sections of body tissue and organs with great clarity.

MCI Medical Director Dr. Lloyd Miyawaki said, “The machine localizes, defines and reconstructs a patient’s tumor in three-dimensions prior to radiation treatment. This helps physicians provide treatment with a high degree of accuracy so healthy tissue is spared from receiving radiation.”

MCI’s Medical Physicist Chun Li, PhD, said, “If a cancer patient requires radiation treatment, this is the most accurate process available to localize, define and reconstruct a patient’s tumor in three-dimensions. The treatment plan is unique to each patient’s anatomy.”

A Radiation Therapy Technologist operates the $1.3 million General Electric LightSpeed CT Simulator to map areas of the body that need radiation.

“Before radiation treatment begins, cancer patients go through a treatment planning process called simulation to map the area of the body where radiation will be delivered,” Li said. “The sophisticated computer software on the CT Simulator mimics the movements and settings of the actual treatment machine (called a linear accelerator) that will be used to administer the radiation therapy.”

Details from the simulation are forwarded to Medical Radiation Dosimetrists and Medical Physicists. These professionals perform the highly technical calculations that will be used to set the linear accelerator.

A series of marks are made on the patient’s skin. These are used as a guide to place the patient in the best position for radiation therapy treatment every time.

Learn more about MCI's leading edge technology at http://www.marincancerinstitute.org/jsp/AboutMarin_MCITech.jsp

April 26, 2006