Ion Beam Applications (IBA), a supplier of next-generation proton therapy solutions and radiation therapy quality assurance for the treatment of cancer, has announced the first clinical implementation of Dolphin Online Ready Patient QA and Monitoring solution in the UK.
The treatment monitoring technology distributed by Oncology Systems to Altnagelvin Area Hospital, part of the Western Health and Social Care Trust, provides measurement-based quality assurance for a more-efficient and more-accurate pre-treatment patient QA.
With the use of Dolphin attached to the hospital’s TrueBeam treatment machine, the team at the North West Cancer Centre in Londonderry, set a new standard for high-quality cancer therapy and a more-efficient patient Quality Assurance (QA) process.
This milestone allows the clinic to offer their patients the latest generation of technology to deliver the highest-quality radiation therapy treatments.
With Dolphin we can perform fully-independent, measurement-based quality assurance of our most-advanced IMRT and VMAT treatments quickly and confidently
“With Dolphin we can perform fully-independent, measurement-based quality assurance of our most-advanced IMRT and VMAT treatments quickly and confidently,” said Dr Andrew Reilly, head of radiotherapy physics at the new North West Cancer Centre.
“Being so straightforward to use it allows us to plan to the capabilities of the treatment machines, rather than limiting what we do because legacy verification processes cannot keep up. This ensures our clinicians can offer the best-possible care to their patients.”
Dr Wendy Hyland, radiotherapy physicist at Western Health and Social Care Trust, added: “The measurement process is so easy I can spend more time thinking about what the results mean rather than worrying about the measurements themselves.”
Dolphin is a complete solution that offers a higher capability to detect and verify possible treatment dose discrepancies compared to conventional QA solutions, thus contributing to a more-efficient and safer radiation therapy.
This improvement is based on Dolphin’s significantly-higher treatment dose measurement resolution.
Highly-complex IMRT and rotational treatment plans are delivered and measured with the Dolphin transmission detector prior to each patient treatment.
A sophisticated TPS-Class software allows verification of dose deviations in 3D patient anatomy between the plan and actual delivered dose measured with Dolphin.
Plans can be measured with high accuracy using a streamlined process, reducing the burden on time and resources and improving the treatment quality at the same time
The system is supplied ‘online ready’ so that, in future, patient treatment doses will be measured and assessed in real-time for every treatment fraction.
The hospital’s patient QA workflow efficiency is increased with Dolphin’s plug-and-play wireless setup and its automatic verification software displaying instant QA results.
Asia Baginska, medical physicist at Oncology Systems, who assisted in the commissioning of the Dolphin system at Altnagelvin Area Hospital, added: “Once the Dolphin system was commissioned, the team at Altnagelvin wasted no time in using the system to verify their first patient plans.
The system is supplied online ready so in future, measurements can be made in real-time during the actual treatment delivery ensuring an additional level of quality assurance for clinicians and the patient
“The system gives them total confidence, especially with complex delivery techniques such as VMAT and FFF.
“Plans can be measured with high accuracy using a streamlined process, reducing the burden on time and resources and improving the treatment quality at the same time.
“The system is supplied online ready so in future, measurements can be made in real-time during the actual treatment delivery ensuring an additional level of quality assurance for clinicians and the patient.”
