Mother of 2 kids successfully treated with advanced radiation therapy. Advanced radiation therapy cures 32-year-old breast cancer patient

Radiation therapy

Advanced Cutting-edge technology saved the life of a 32-year-old breast cancer patient, who was not only successfully operated upon for breast conservation surgery but also treated with this technology at Max Hospital Patparganj.

Truebeam STx being the latest cutting-edge technology has recently been in use in India for the treatment of breast and lung cancer without the risk of radiation exposure to healthy organs.

The patient who was a mother of two, after being diagnosed with a painless cancerous lump in her left breast was totally devastated foreseeing the painful lifelong cancer treatment procedures. Naturally, she wanted to be cured at the earliest without suffering the usual side-effects associated with cancer treatment. Looking at her condition, doctors at Max Hospital Patparganj, who have emerged as a pioneer in the use of advanced therapy in oncology treatment, advised her for the True Beam technique.

“One of the major challenges after breast conservation surgery was that the patient needed to undergo radiotherapy which would have exposed her vital organs including lungs and heart to the radiation. True beam being an advanced technique provides a quick and precise beam of radiation delivery to the diseased tissues only thereby preventing exposure risk of healthy adjacent organs. Through the DIBH technique, True Beam was synched with the patient’s breathing so when she took deep breaths and held them in a certain band, the radiation was delivered thereby targeting only the breast and not affecting the underlying heart and lungs. After completing the full cycle of her treatment, the patient is now leading a normal and active life and is fully cured of cancer.” Said Dr. Dinesh Singh, Director, Department of Radiation Oncology, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Patparganj

As per the recent data by Globacan India 2019, of all the cancer cases in India, breast cancer accounts for around 14% of the cases and is reported that a woman in India is diagnosed with breast cancer every four minutes. While breast removal surgeries, or suffering from the harmful effects of the chemotherapy and radiotherapy were once considered to be the only treatment option. But with recent advancements, these are not the only alternatives left to women now, as modern treatment and cure is offering much more.

“Radiotherapy is one of the most important treatment modalities in the successful treatment of cancer. With technological advancements, new machines have come up for delivery of radiation in cancer treatment. Truebeam STx is one such technical marvel that has revolutionized the treatment of cancer with radiation. Being the most advanced linear accelerator and radiosurgery treatment system, Truebeam STx facilitates highly conformal radiation treatment to even very hard to access tumours with an accuracy of less than 1mm error.” Added Dr. Gagan Saini, Associate Director, Department of Radiation Oncology, Max Super Speciality Hospital, Patparganj

As opposed to the filtered or modified bean in the conventional Linear accelerator, the true beam has original or unfiltered beam, making it the most rapidly evolving and most advanced form. Being a truly attractive and modern form of technology, True beam enables radiations at very high accuracy thereby reducing the radiation exposure to the normal surrounding structures. The Micro- multi-leaf collimator of True beam allows the treating beams to conform to the shape of even the smallest of tumours. Its 6D couch rotation property helps in better targeting of tumours with a lot less inconvenience to the patient.

Elaborating on why radiologists are increasingly opting for this technology, Dr. Singh explained, “Why we are choosing Truebeam in more and more cases is due to the many advantages that this technology has on offer. Its unfiltered beam delivered at a high dose rate takes less time to complete treatment and hence there are fewer chances of the tumour growing or of target movement. It is capable of very accurate delivery of radiation required and gives a very precise radiation delivery plan in a very short time. It also has an app, ExacTrac that provides guidance during radiation delivery for heightened accuracy and its DIBH or deep inspiratory breath-hold technique greatly reduces doses to heart and lungs in treating left-sided breast cancer.”

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