This year alone, more than 186,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and every 19 minutes a man dies from it. For some men, surgery is not the answer, but now there's a new machine that kills the cancer faster and with more accuracy than ever before.
Todd Tilton is getting a new targeted radiation treatment to kill the prostate cancer growing inside him. In 90 seconds, Tilton's entire treatment for the day will be done!
"By giving faster treatment (a more accurate treatment) based on the image guidance that we're able to do, we are able to keep the radiation away from normal tissues," Shawn Zimberg, M.D., a radiation oncologist at the Advanced Radiation Centers of New York told Ivanhoe.
Dr. Zimberg placed several gold markers inside Tilton's prostate to help guide the lasers.
"Those markers serve as a beacon for the precise, exact location of the prostate," he explained
Technicians line up the markers and turn on the radiation. The beams continually adjust to the 3-D anatomy and avoid normal tissues.
"With RapidArc, what we're able to do is treat a patient in one single rotation, as opposed to multiple beams that can also be injuring the other tissue," Dr. Zimberg said.
Radiation time is cut from up to 20 minutes to just a minute-and-a-half. Side effects are rare using this technique, but could include pain while urinating and diarrhea.
RapidArc Add: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI3U2JZ5GnY
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