Brachytherapy Planning for DICOM-Compatible Cancer Treatment Planning System

A new brachytherapy system provides many benefits to clinicians that allow for faster and easier creation of treatment plans, ranging from simple to complex, in user-defined workspaces that allow for adaptation to specific clinical workflows.

Nucletron (Veenedaal, The Netherlands), a knowledge-based developer of radiation oncology systems, has developed the Oncentra Brachy, a comprehensive, volume-based treatment planning system for optimized cancer treatment planning with brachytherapy. Oncentra Brachy, the world's first fully Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine- (DICOM)-compatible treatment planning system, features state-of-the-art optimization algorithms to ensure efficient treatment. The new solution provides excellent three-dimensional (3D) contouring and margining tools to identify regions of interests (ROIs) on computed tomography (CT) or in a multimodality imaging environments using image registration for CT, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET) data.

With this system, real-time information sharing provides immediate access for the entire medical team and facilitates the exchange of treatment plans over vast distances with decentralized planning capabilities. Physicians are able to evaluate and authorize treatment plans remotely. "The release of Oncentra Brachy marks the first of some new and exciting treatment planning innovations forthcoming from Nucletron,” said Jeroen Cammeraat, chief operating officer of Nucletron. We have set a new benchmark in technological achievement with Oncentra Brachy that represents the future of brachytherapy treatment planning. We have worked with our clinical partners to develop a state-of-the art solution that includes many sophisticated and powerful new tools to improve patient care.”

"Oncentra Brachy opens new possibilities to explore new treatment techniques for brachytherapy planning that could not be considered before,” according to the radiation oncology department of the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam. "As reconstruction and planning on MR data becomes reality, the user friendliness of the system provides clinicians and physicists all the flexibility they need. We are able to create optimal and accurate plans to yield better treatment for our patients.”

Oncentra Brachy is a part of fully integrated system for brachytherapy treatment of a wide variety of cancers, giving medical professionals the most advanced systems to optimally treat patients using brachytherapy. "As one of the original gamma testing sites for Oncentra Brachy, I am very pleased with the efficient and flexible tools of this new treatment planning system from Nucletron,” said I-Chow Hsu, M.D., from the University of California San Francisco (USA). "After testing the system thoroughly, we are planning to use Oncentra Brachy exclusively in our center.”

Nucletron presented Oncentra Brachy at the 2008 World Congress of Brachytherapy in Boston, MA, USA, May 4-6, 2008. Regulatory clearance of the system in North America is pending.


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