Truebeam technologyand SBRT add new dimension to Cancer Radiation Treatment

Radiation treatment forms part of treatment protocol for more than two thirds of cancer patients. It is also used for several noncancerous tumors and conditions. The very prospect of radiation therapy makes patients anxious with regard to side effects, duration of treatment and outcomes.

This is anxiety is natural given the false impressions that radiation treatment causes some kind of burns or disabilities. Conventional radiation treatment technology had significant complications and side effects such as skindarkening and ulceration over treated areas of body, ulcerations in mouth, severe weakness and debility, loss of hairs etc.

These side effects and risk of complications caused limitations for doctors to deliver higher effective doses of radiation to the tumor. The whole treatment-dosing plan was limited by healthy tissue complications due to radiation.

Over past few years, the technology has evolved leaps and bounds to enable doctors specifically target cancer tissue with lesser dose going to surrounding healthy tissues.Truebeam STX is most advanced radiation treatment technology which has added totally new dimension to how cancer patients are treated with radiation.

What is Truebeam STX?
Truebeam STX is an advanced radiation treatment and radiosurgery system with state of the art accuracy even for moving tumors. It can deliver radiation treatment with sub-millimeter accuracy to tumors in difficult and hard to reach areas.

What are the advantages of Truebeam STX SBRT over other systems?

1.Higher accuracy: Tumors are always irregular in shape and size, this system modifies the shape of high energy radiation beam according to shape of the tumor, this decreases radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissues causing fewer complications & side effects.

2.High precision also helps us deliver much higher doses to some tumours leading to better results..

3.Tumour tracking and on couch CT scanning can precisely target tumours that move with breathing like in lungs and liver. This allows for more effective dose delivery.

4.Shorter Treatment Times: Truebeam STX technology helps us finish treatment in fraction of treatment duration of other systems. More dose in less time is biologically more effective and leads to better tumour killing.

5.Better Patient comfort due to faster treatment: 5-7 minutes compared to 1 hour for 
other technologies.

6.Fewer treatment sessions means shorter treatment course, up to 1 week in SBRT treatments.

What is SBRT (Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy)?
SBRT is a radiation therapy technology used to very precisely deliver a high dose of radiation to an extracranial target within the body, using either a single or a small number of fractions.

Why is SBRT useful?

A higher dose is biologically more effective for resistent and recurrent tumors that cannot be surgically removed due to various reasons. SBRT thus offers curative radiation treatment for inoperable new or recurrenttumours with equivalent results as noted in several clinical studies internationally.

Stereotactic body radiation therapy is a recent radiotherapy technique, which has quickly developed because of its excellent results in terms of tolerance and its high loco-regional control rates.

Clinical Uses of Truebeam STX SBRT

Early stage Lung cancer primary or metastatic.

Metastatic Liver tumours.

Spine tumours.

Recurrent or residual Cancers of Head and neck region. 


Reirradiation for progressive or recurrent cancers.

Low risk Prostate cancer.

Pancreatic Cancer.

Benign and Malignant brain tumours.

Vascular malformations of brain and spinal cord.

Functional Disorders like Trigeminal neuralgia etc.

Kidney Cancer – inoperable tumours.

Metastatic tumors from relatively radioresistanttumours like Melanoma, Sarcoma etc.

SBRT is a useful technology for cancer treatment but in addition to the technology, only an experienced team of radiation oncologist, medical physicist and radiation therapists can deliver desired results for the patients.

By:Dr. Amit K. Jotwani