Baptist Hospital Leads The Way With Innovative Approach To Cancer

Cancer specialists and radiologists at Baptist Hospital are teaming two of the most promising advances in their fields to destroy tumors without damaging nearby healthy tissues. Only a handful of U.S. hospitals have been able to take this leading-edge approach.

It involves a three-dimensional radiation therapy known as IMRT and a scanner capable of spotting changes both in bodily structures and in the way cells use nutrients such as sugar and oxygen. By combining these technologies, Baptist Hospital doctors are able to pinpoint tumors – some so small they normally would escape detection – and target them with radiation doses that match their exact size, shape and intensity.

The scanner is a two-in-one imaging system that combines PET scans – or positron emission tomography – with CT scans. PET scans detect changes in the metabolism of cells. These changes can happen before physical changes take place, making PET an excellent tool for early diagnosis. CT – or computed tomography – uses X-rays and high-speed computers to provide doctors with a non-surgical way of looking inside the body. It rapidly produces two-dimensional pictures that are translated into 3-D images for in-depth evaluation by radiologists.

By providing both anatomic and metabolic information from a single procedure, PET/CT allows doctors to spot increased cell activity while relating it to the body’s internal anatomy. This helps doctors to more quickly determine whether someone has cancer, if it is spreading, whether treatment is working or if there’s been a recurrence. PET/CT not only improves a physician’s ability to diagnose and monitor disease, it also helps predict the likely outcome of various treatment choices and identify the best options to take.

Radiation oncologists at Baptist Hospital quickly recognized the potential benefits of using PET/CT in combination with IMRT. Intensity modulated radiation therapy transmits thousands of tiny radiation beams in patterns conforming exactly to the tumor being targeted. By precisely matching IMRT’s radiation to the exquisite detail of PET/CT in their treatment planing system, the risk of toxicity or damage to healthy tissue is greatly reduced. This allows doctors to concentrate treatment intensity on cancers with higher, more effective doses, resulting in better outcomes and improved quality of life for patients.

It takes cooperation between physicians and technologists of different departments to combine PET/CT with IMRT. Since PET/CT has a diagnostic function and IMRT is used for treatment, they operate in separate locations and departments. For the two systems to work together, however, patients must be positioned in exactly the same way for both the scan and radiation treatment. Identical tables and customized plastic body or head molds position the patient to ensure alignment – but Baptist Hospital’s award-winning culture makes the process work.

The system has already been used to treat head-and-neck cancers, but radiation oncologists foresee its application for other malignancies, especially cancers of the esophagus, pancreas and lung – one of the three most frequently treated cancers treated at Baptist Hospital.