For Which Types of Cancer is Ethos Used?
Ethos radiotherapy device is, first, used in treatment of patients with prostate cancer to investigate its success in organs that can move. The most common areas of use have been “prostate cancer” and head-neck cancers. It can be used for various types of cancers.
How does Ethos Device Function?
- Ethos Therapy System has an Artificial Intelligence (AI)- and Machine Learning (ML)-based mode of operation.
- CBCT and Artificial Intelligence ensure that location of tumor in patient’s body is accurately targeted in each therapy.
- It offers an advantage of imaging with diagnostic quality in planning and treatment.
- The changes in anatomy of the patient are visualized by high-quality iCBCT images on daily basis.
- It calculates and estimates automatic dose accumulation to supervise progression of treatment.
- It minimizes the damage to healthy organs and tissues located close to the tumor.
- It decreases side effects.
- A session usually takes 10 to 15 minutes.
Why is Quick Treatment Important?
Cancer patients usually suffer from severe pain – a condition that makes lying on the treatment couch for prolonged time difficult. Longer treatment may, sometimes, not allow patients keep the body position during treatment. Movements can lead to unnecessary radiation exposure in healthy organs during treatment followed by potential side effects in these organs.
Ethos device shortens treatments and thus, patients can leave the treatment room within minutes. Lying on the treatment cough for a short time eliminates the need for staying still for a long time. Thus, patients need to stay still for a short time during radiotherapy and this fact translates into maximized effect on target tissues. Peripheral healthy tissues are protected.
What is importance of pre-treatment imaging?
In radiotherapy, only the diseased part of the body is irradiated in patients. The target zone is precisely identified with various imaging modalities (CT, MRI and PET/CT) before the treatment. After a treatment plan is created, same treatment plan is applied identically in each treatment session. However, initial treatment plan may not be appropriate anymore in the course of treatment due to certain factors, such as shrinkage of tumor and changes at location of organs. In this case, the most appropriate approach will be imaging the treatment area before each treatment and then irradiating the target precisely.
Adaptive Planning in Ethos System
Radiotherapy is performed on the targeted areas as planned by physicians. Radiotherapy may require several sessions depending on type and stage of cancer. Changes can develop in cancerous tissues or tumor can shrink or enlarge in the course of sessions. If the cancer is present in organ that can naturally move, shape and place of the organ may change on daily basis.
Ethos radiotherapy device can detect the changes not only in tumor, but also in the organ on daily basis. Thus, the device can automatically modify the plan within a short time, which would require a very long time, if it would necessarily be modified by physician. Thus, target tissue of the treatment is clearly and accurately determined in a short time. This provides a protection for the healthy tissue located around the target. Ethos Device uses CBCT (Cone-Beam Computerized Tomography) that emits X-rays in a conic form to create 3D images and that acquires real-time image of patient’s anatomy.
