Scottish physicians tout radiotherapy tech that minimizes workload, radiation exposure
Radiotherapy technology recently employed at a cancer center in Glasgow, Scotland, has the ability to generate individualized radiotherapy treatment plans for as many as 50 patients at a time within minutes, circumventing a process that typically takes physicians more than a day per patient plan, the Herald reported early this week.
The novel tech debuted at the Beatson Institute’s cancer center, according to the report, and cuts manual labor for radiologists using a software called multi-criteria optimization.
Garry Currie, the head of radiotherapy physics at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, told the Herald he didn’t think technology would reach this point during his career.
“Our work never stands still, [but] this is a real game-changer,” he said. “As recently as 2010, staff would start work on just one treatment plan and come back in the next day—including weekends—to finish the calculations.”
He said humans just aren’t capable of achieving such efficiency when it comes to those complex mathematics. Now, he said, radiologists can instantly assess the impact a suggested treatment plan would have on radiation dose toward the beginning of the therapy process.
“We’re at the forefront of this work,” he said. “However, the results will continue to improve as more cancer centers start working in the same way and more and more collaborations take place.”
Read the full report from the Herald here:
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.