Precise Treatment with OSMS

When hav­ing radi­a­tion ther­a­py, pre­ci­sion is key. Since tar­get­ing cer­tain cells, and leav­ing oth­ers alone, is of upmost impor­tance; sur­face guid­ed radi­a­tion ther­a­py is often used. Sur­face Guid­ed Radi­a­tion Ther­a­py (SGRT) is a rapid­ly grow­ing tech­nique which uses stereo vision tech­nol­o­gy to track patients’ sur­face in 3D, for both set­up and motion man­age­ment dur­ing radi­a­tion ther­a­py. This tech­nique is also some­times referred to Opti­cal Sur­face Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem (OSMS), Align RT, or Vision RT.

How Does OSMS Work?

Opti­cal Sur­face Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem (OSMS) is a new­er tech­nol­o­gy that is becom­ing wide­ly used to mon­i­tor a patien­t’s posi­tion­ing before and dur­ing treat­ment to ensure pin­point accu­ra­cy. Spe­cial cam­eras ren­der a real-time 3D image of the body and com­pare it to base­line CT imag­ing that was per­formed for plan­ning pur­pos­es pri­or to treat­ment. Direc­tions are then pro­vid­ed for the tech­nol­o­gist to posi­tion the patient for treat­ment and mon­i­tor move­ment out­side the intend­ed posi­tion dur­ing treat­ment. This advanced sys­tem is also able to link to the treat­ment deliv­ery sys­tem to auto­mat­i­cal­ly pause radi­a­tion if necessary.

Ben­e­fits of OSMS

The physi­cian over­see­ing your can­cer care will deter­mine if Opti­cal Sur­face Mon­i­tor­ing Sys­tem (OSMS) is right for you. This sys­tem can help in a num­ber of ways:

• Helps speed up and improve the accu­ra­cy of setup
• Can reduce the need for immo­bi­liza­tion while help­ing to ensure you are in the cor­rect posi­tion for treatment
• Ensures you are receiv­ing the most accu­rate place­ment and deliv­ery of radi­a­tion ther­a­py treatment
• OSMS can stop treat­ment if unin­tend­ed areas come into the treat­ment field
• Treat­ment can be held until the patient is in the cor­rect posi­tion and holds their breath at a pre­cise point using a process called deep inspi­ra­tion breath hold (DIBH)

Free Breath­ing vs. Breath Hold

There are a few dif­fer­ent meth­ods when set­ting up a patient for sur­face guid­ed radi­a­tion treat­ment using OSMS.

• Posi­tion­ing an indi­vid­ual dur­ing their nor­mal state of breath­ing and mon­i­tor­ing the patient for move­ment dur­ing treat­ment. This method helps get the patient into the cor­rect posi­tion for treat­ment and often saves time dur­ing the posi­tion­ing process.
• Anoth­er method is to posi­tion an indi­vid­ual dur­ing their nor­mal state of breath­ing and auto­mat­i­cal­ly ter­mi­nate the radi­a­tion beam if the cam­eras detect move­ment dur­ing treat­ment. This method is often used if there is a con­cern of a spe­cif­ic area poten­tial­ly mov­ing into the radi­a­tion field dur­ing treatment.
• OSMS can also be used to posi­tion an indi­vid­ual dur­ing their nor­mal state of breath­ing and then switch to watch the patient so the machine will only treat once the indi­vid­ual breaths in to a spe­cif­ic point and holds the pre­cise breath for treat­ment. With this method, the physi­cian and ther­a­pists can ensure the patient is only being treat­ed at a very spe­cif­ic point. If the indi­vid­ual breaths in too much or breaths out dur­ing treat­ment, the sys­tem will auto­mat­i­cal­ly stop.

With any method of set­up, OSMS is an excel­lent tool to use when rec­om­mend­ed by your physician.

If you are sched­uled for radi­a­tion treat­ment at DuPage Med­ical Group, or have ques­tions regard­ing radi­a­tion ther­a­py, please talk to your physi­cian or call 630−432−6745.