Calypso's Dynamic Edge Gating Technology reduces side effects of radiation therapy

9 Nov 2010

Calypso Medical Technologies, Inc has introduced Dynamic Edge Gating Technology, recently cleared by the US FDA, at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

 Dynamic Edge Gating Technology is used in the company's Calypso system to allow radiation therapists to set motion thresholds which disable radiation delivery if the targeted tissue moves outside the preset threshold.

The Calypso System, which provides target position information in the form of objective data, previously relied upon the therapist to manually intervene and halt radiation delivery when healthy tissue was in danger of receiving unintended radiation.

Dynamic Edge Gating Technology automates this function and provides an immediate response so the radiation beam is automatically disabled or re-enabled in response to organ motion.

As a result, this technology may enable a further decrease in the side effects associated with prostate radiotherapy, such as bowel and bladder incontinence and sexual dysfunction, because healthy tissue is protected from receiving radiation intended for the tumour.

A May 2010 study in Urology, titled Assessing the Impact of Margin Reduction (AIM), demonstrated that patients whose radiotherapy delivery was guided by the Calypso System experienced a significant decrease in the side effects associated with prostate radiation treatment.

Using Calypso’s real-time tracking, physicians were able to decrease the treatment margin of irradiated healthy tissue surrounding the tumour to just a few millimetres. Because less healthy tissue received radiation, patients reported fewer side effects.

Combining the decreased treatment margins of the AIM study with the automated radiation beam response of Dynamic Edge Gating has the potential to further reduce prostate radiation therapy side effects since the radiation beam will now be enabled or disabled automatically, based on objective motion threshold data, as opposed to manual intervention by the therapist.

“A hallmark of the Calypso System is its ability to accurately target the cancer and protect adjacent healthy tissue by displaying, in real-time for each moment of every patient treatment session, the type and degree of organ motion present,” said Lorraine Marshall Wright, chief marketing officer and vice president of Calypso Medical.

“The automatic response to organ motion of Dynamic Edge Gating should give treating physicians the confidence to decrease treatment margins, as shown in the AIM study, and ensure their patients experience the curative benefits of radiation therapy and fewer of the potential side effects.”

The Calypso System, with its GPS-for-the-Body technology, utilizes miniature implanted Beacon transponders to provide precise, continuous information on the location of the tumour during external beam radiation therapy. Any movement by the patient, including internal movement of the tumour, may cause the radiation to miss its intended target and hit adjacent healthy tissue.

In contrast to other tumour targeting solutions, the Calypso System provides continuous tumour position information, objectively and without ionizing radiation, thereby enabling an increase in the radiation delivered to the tumour while reducing radiation misapplied to normal tissue.

 

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