It combines the latest technology of diagnostic CT scans and computer software to provide three-dimensional treatment planning. The AcQsim takes standard CT scans and generates three-dimensional images and simulation views on a sophisticated computer system. A team of radiation oncologists, radiation therapists and physicists then uses these 3-D images to develop treatment plans for patient therapy.
Treatment planning is probably the most crucial part of radiation therapy.
It's where we decide what dose of radiation to deliver and where to direct the radiation beam. Moody Wharam, M.D., director of radiation oncology, says the AcQsim system provides the physician with more precise information on the location of disease and of critical normal structures than does traditional two-dimensional simulation. Currently used two-dimensional treatment simulation cannot show what happens to normal tissue and organs surrounding the tumor site and leaves operators concerned about dose levels to healthy tissue. It also requires patients to remain motionless, sometimes for hours, on a flat table beneath a machine that simulates, using benign light rays, the path of radiation beams generated by a linear accelerator during actual treatment. He expects the AcQsim ultimately to replace two-dimensional simulation.