Image guided radiation therapy: first clinical application of ARTISTE at the German Cancer Research Center
The first patient treatment with ARTISTE, a new radiotherapy device with integrated X-ray imaging capabilities developed and marketed by SIEMENS Healthcare, has been performed today at German Cancer Research Center. With ARTISTE, physicians are able to observe and to correct for the actual position, extension and potential movements of a tumor during therapy. Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center played a leading role in the development of this device.
One of the first industrially produced ARTISTE systems, currently installed at German Cancer Research Center, will be employed for the first time for the treatment of a cancer patient. "The patient is suffering from an inoperable esophagus tumor, whose treatment demands a very complicated radiotherapy approach", explains Prof. Dr. Dr. Huber, head of the Clinical Cooperation Unit "Radiation Oncology". In order to achieve the clinically required accuracy of the treatment, we have to determine the actual position of the tumor prior to each of the 30 fractions with the utmost precision. Anatomically this procedure is necessary because the location of the tumor is shifting daily according to the filling state of the stomach. "With today’s treatment technology we are able to aim at the tumor with millimeter accuracy, however this enormous potential can hardly be used if the tumor has moved significantly from its position determined at the time of diagnosis", explains Huber when describing the advantages of the ARTISTE.
With this new technology an observed shift in the cancer target position can be automatically corrected for such that the tumor still receives the required clinical dose and surrounding healthy tissues are spared from unwanted radiation.
A team of scientists led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schlegel and Prof. Dr. Uwe Oelfke of the German Cancer Research Center’s division "Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology", substantially contributed to the technical development of the ARTISTE platform. Currently, further adaptive therapy approaches are still under investigation at the German Cancer Research Center. These include the development of dynamic tumor tracking during the irradiation or gated dose delivery techniques for the treatment of lung tumors.
With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.
To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
