It’s not just pretty on the outside — Tanner Cancer Care’s newly expanded Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center also boasts the latest in cancer treatment innovation inside.
The center is the first community cancer provider in the nation offering a Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator with Varian’s exclusive HyperSight functionality.
“This technology only received FDA approval in March,” said Anil Dhople, MD, medical director and quality advisor at the Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center and a board-certified radiation oncologist with Tanner Radiation Oncology. “Presently, the only places you can find this technology is at about half a dozen medical research facilities — and none are in the Southeast.”
HyperSight, developed by medical technology company Varian, is a significant advancement in radiotherapy.
In radiation therapy, accuracy is paramount in ensuring radiation destroys cancerous cells without damaging healthy tissues. HyperSight can enhance the accuracy of treatments by providing radiation oncologists with much clearer images in near-real time — seconds instead of minutes — than previous technologies.
For patients, this can mean faster treatments and reduced side effects from radiation exposure. The near-diagnostic images give doctors a larger field of view as well, with more contrast and spatial detail to guide treatments.
At Tanner Cancer Care, one of the first steps for people with cancer on their journey is a clinical scan on the cancer center’s CT device. Radiation oncologists use images from that scan are used to plan their radiation treatments.
While all linear accelerators — the devices used to deliver targeted doses of radiation to destroy cancer cells — offer on-board CT imaging, the images are typically grainy, slow to process and can be difficult to interpret. But with HyperSight, the images are so clear that radiation oncologists can adjust treatment plans on the fly.
“We can see if a tumor is responding to the treatment in real time,” said Dr. Dhople. “We’re getting the data we need during treatment to decide if we need to change course. That’s revolutionary, and among community-based cancer care providers, it’s only here at Tanner.”
Dr. Dhople said the technology could prove especially useful in treating tumors that are close to parts of the body that are more sensitive to radiation exposure, like the spine.
“Advances in radiation oncology are all about accuracy,” said Dr. Dhople. “The goal is to treat the cancerous tissue from every angle without touching healthy tissue. The sophistication of linear accelerators has advanced a lot over the past 10 or 15 years, but this is a leap forward, giving us near-diagnostic quality images while we’re delivering treatments.”
The HyperSight technology is available on the new Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator that’s part of the Roy Richards, Sr. Cancer Center renovation and expansion.
“It’s going to let us deliver treatments faster, so patients can spend less time on the machine,” said Dr. Dhople. “It can mean less exposure for patients to radiation, because we’re able to see what we’re doing faster and clearer. It can save patients and their loved ones time because we can see if the treatment is working. It’s going to make a difference in the lives of people with cancer, and it says a lot about Tanner’s commitment to cancer care that we’re the first community provider in the nation to offer this technology on a TrueBeam linear accelerator.
“It’s not in Newnan, Atlanta, Birmingham or anywhere else in the Southeast,” Dr. Dhople added. “It’s here, in Carrollton.”
More on this innovation from Tanner Cancer Care is at tanner.org/HyperSight.
More on Tanner’s approach to treating cancer at TannerCancerCare.org.
