Planning for the various components is critical to getting your Proton Therapy facility built. And planning is equally important once it’s established. IBA works closely with you to integrate your existing facility at all levels—physical systems, information systems, equipment, and operational considerations.
IBA works with leading medical equipment manufacturers and systems developers, ensuring complete integration and compatibility between your Proton Therapy system and other oncology systems and processes in your department. As a result, you are not locked into one all-inclusive system. This gives you the flexibility to choose the systems and processes you want, with the assurance that everything will work together seamlessly.
IBA also provides the ancillary equipment necessary to complete your Proton Therapy facility. The majority of this equipment is manufactured to exacting IBA specifications and packaged with the core technological components. IBA works with leading medical equipment manufacturers and systems designers to ensure complete integration and compatibility between the Proton Therapy system and ancillary components and systems.
From patient scheduling to administration, verification and recording of treatment, a fully integrated Oncology Information System (OIS) is an essential component of oncology department workflow and administration. IBA can package the OIS with the overall Proton Therapy system purchase, or integrate an existing OIS with the new Proton Therapy system. The OIS communicates with the IBA Proton Therapy system’s Therapy Control System (TCS), sending machine, beam, and patient treatment setup instructions and verifying accuracy prior to irradiation.
The Treatment Planning System (TPS) is a vital part of the radiotherapy process, modeling the interaction of beams with the “virtual patient” created with the diagnostic image data sets. IBA can include a suitable TPS with the Proton Therapy system as required. IBA works closely with leading manufacturers to accurately model and utilize the unique characteristics of IBA beam delivery technologies.
IBA is driven by the vision that molecular imaging has reached only a fraction of its full potential; therefore, it offers a large range of cyclotrons for production of positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) radioisotopes.
The Patient Positioning System (PPS) supports and positions the patient with sub-millimeter accuracy, permitting the proton beam to be delivered with great precision to any point in the patient from any angle. The patient positioner has six degrees of freedom (three linear axes to map out the treatable volume, one rotary axis to position the patient with respect to the angle of the nozzle, and couch pitch and roll to accomplish fine-scale adjustment.
The Patient Position Verification System consists of two digital X-ray receptors motorized with automatic motion control for in/out positioning. These are joined to X-ray tubes, which produce digital radiography (DR) during the alignment phase. These are further compared to the digital reconstructed radiography (DRR) to issue a correction vector to the patient positioner. Two X-ray tubes are furnished per treatment room.
One X-ray tube is located in the nozzle, pointing toward the isocenter (beam’s eye view); the second tube is located 90° CCW, pointing toward the isocenter. A laser set and light field are also provided to give the therapist visual confirmation of the patient setup. The laser beam system is composed of line lasers and cross-line lasers.
Many radiation oncology protocols for highly conformal treatment of tumors located near or within the thorax, abdomen, and pelvis now include a form of respiration gating. Motion of the tumor and surrounding anatomy due to respiration can affect the accuracy of the treatment. To compensate for motion or eliminate its effect altogether, the respiratory gating system defines beam-on/beam-off periods that are synchronized with the patient’s breathing cycle. This technique permits the therapist to direct the dose to the tumor more accurately, and may result in less dose “spilling” into surrounding healthy tissue. IBA will integrate a respiratory gating system into the IBA Particle Therapy system to enable compensation for respiratory motion for our customers who select this option.
Respiratory blocking: The patient breathes through an air mask, and the air flow is stopped when the lung is filled with a given volume. The beam is then enabled until the patient starts breathing again. The patient will need to learn to hold his or her breath before treatment.
Respiratory gating by air flow monitoring: The patient is breathing freely in an air mask and the air volume in the lung is monitored. When the volume in the lung is below or above a given volume, the beam is disabled.
Respiratory gating by chest motion monitoring: The patient is breathing freely and one or a set of “targets” is positioned on the patient's chest. These targets are tracked by one or a set of cameras. By setting a trigger level on the position of the targets, the therapist decides when the beam is disabled.
Several FDA-approved systems are currently available and can be integrated into the IBA Particle Therapy system.
Many of our customers are finding that, given the volume of Particle Therapy patients who will be seen in the facility, the numbers support ready access to imaging equipment. Some recent designs have included on-site PET-CT and MRI; others have included CT and cone-beam IGRT. Whatever the need, IBA can include imaging systems in the overall Proton Therapy system purchase, per your requirement. IBA will work with you and leading medical equipment manufacturers to ensure complete integration and a satisfactory facility design.
Many of our customers fabricate patient-specific beam modification devices with milling machines. The shape and thickness of the devices is determined and exported as data by the treatment planning system. For our customers requiring milling machines, IBA works with leading manufacturers and will package them together with components in the overall Proton Therapy system purchase to ensure complete integration and compatibility between systems.
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