Radiation therapy is a key component of care for many types of cancers. But some tumors can be more difficult than others to treat. Cancers in the lungs, for example, move with each breath, while tumors that have metastasized to many places in the body can require repeated radiation sessions.
Earlier this week, Stanford Medicine launched a new method of delivering radiation that uses signals from cancer-targeting molecules called tracers to target tumors in real time. It is the first time the new approach, known as biology-guided radiation therapy or SCINTIXTM, has been used in a clinic.
“This is the first radiation treatment machine in the world to combine radiotherapy with PET [positron emission tomography] technology,” said Michael Gensheimer, MD, clinical associate professor of radiation oncology. “It targets the cancer directly in areas where it is most active, tracking its movement and adjusting the radiation delivery several times a second.”
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