|
|
 |
|
St. Louis Business Journal - August 4, 2006
By Julia M. Johnson
St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield is purchasing a new linear accelerator that will allow the facility to expand its services to cancer patients.
The $3.1 million system is made by Varian Medical Systems of Palo Alto, Calif. The expenditure received Missouri Certificate of Need approval this summer, and St. Luke's expects to have the system in place in November.
The new equipment will replace a machine that is about 10 years old, said Rod Henning, director of oncology for the hospital. It will allow St. Luke's to offer two new services for cancer patients -- image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and extracranial stereotactic radiosurgery.
IGRT allows doctors to precisely locate a tumor before the growth receives radiation treatment. "The system compares images it's taking right before treatment, and makes adjustments based on where the tumor has moved," Henning said.
Extracranial stereotactic radiosurgery is a radiation procedure that can be performed in place of traditional surgery. "It obliterates small tumors in hard-to-reach places," Henning said. "Historically it has been done intracranially, for brain tumors. The new technology in this machine will allow us to do extracranial tumors such as those of the spine, pancreas, prostate and lung."
Henning said the new machine will expose to radiation about 50 percent less of the patient's healthy surrounding tissue, compared to previous models.
« Back | Top
|
|
|
|
|
|
