alignrt in action - Sarcomas

Sarcomas often affect limbs which provides a challenge for radiotherapy positioning. Limbs are difficult to position accurately each day as the range of movement is far greater that the torso. If possible, the lymphatic drainage of the limbs should be preserved in order to reduce the risk of Oedema in the future. Thermo-Plastic Immobilisation devices are sometimes employed in order to hold the limb into position although this doesn’t provide the ideal solution. Since the limb separation is not great, the dose to the skin surface is usually high. Added a layer of plastic to the surface increases the dose to the skin and can lead to potential problems. AlignRT allows the radiographer or therapist to position the limb in the same position as their CT scan in order to ensure lymphatics are spared and skin doses are as low as possible.

CT
The patient is scanned as normal and the CT data may then be exported from the planning system to AlignRT as a DICOM RT structure to be used as a reference image. The reference image can be moved within AlignRT so that the isocentre is moved from the CT isocentre to the Isocentre position as defined by the planning process.

Treatment
The patient is positioned on the treatment couch and a surface image is acquired. This is then matched directly to the CT reference image and coordinates are output in all six degrees of freedom.

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