Diane Pyle, 61, of Tacolneston, becomes first patient to receive game-changing new cancer treatment
A Norfolk breast cancer patient has become the first person to benefit from a game-changing new treatment.
Diane Pyle, 61, of Tacolneston, received the new Surface Guided Radiotherapy, (SGRT) at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH). It uses specialist cameras in a system called AlignRT to create a unique 3D outline of the surface of a patient’s body.
It helps patients get into the correct position more accurately and quickly, while it can also be used to automatically interrupt treatment if the patient is no longer in the correct position.
For the patient, this means no tattoo marks are needed, as traditional radiotherapy does, as well as less exposure to X-ray images. It reduces treatment time while also increasing accuracy and patient comfort. Ms Pyle has experienced both methods of treatment. She said: “I am really pleased and honestly a little excited to have been the first person to have benefitted from the new SGRT. It’s less hands on, there’s no need for pen marks or permanent tattoos and it’s much quicker for me and the really wonderful staff delivering my radiotherapy.”
Radiotherapy is the use of powerful X-rays to treat cancers. At NNUH, the new equipment has been installed on all five of its TrueBeam linear accelerators (linacs) and the department’s dedicated CT scanner.
Jo Thomas, clinical operational manager at NNUH (therapeutic radiographer), said: “SGRT is a complete game changer for patients, and we are so excited to be able to use this new technology. Patients don’t need to be handled and moved by us as much, they’re in the treatment room for a shorter time, and it’s much nicer not to have a tattoo, because they’re not left with a visual reminder of a really difficult time, after their treatment has finished.”
The treatment is described as cutting edge. If a patient coughs or sneezes more than a set tolerance, it will stop. Radiographers previously had to rely on watching from outside the treatment room. The equipment, made by VisionRT Ltd, cost over £1 million and was funded from the department’s managed service contract.
