States »EasPosted at: Jul 19 2021 9:42PM Scientists develop Novel & Cheap 3D Robotic Motion Phantom that can reproduce Human Lung Motion
Kolkata, Jul 19 (UNI) Doctors in India may soon have the facility to simulate the lung motion of
a cancer patient to help deliver focused radiation in the upper abdomen or thoracic region.
Breathing motion is a hurdle for delivering focused radiation dose to the cancer tumour attached
to upper abdomen and thoracic regions. The motion exposes an area larger than the tumour to
radiation during cancer treatment, thus affecting tissues surrounding the targeted tumour.
A focused radiation for a patient could be customised by simulating the lung movement of the particular patient and then orienting the delivery of the radiation so that it can be effective with
minimal dosage. Before this is done on a human, its effectiveness needs to be checked on a
robotic phantom.
Recent technological development have resulted in state-of-the-art motion management
techniques like-gating and tracking. Though there is incremental development in radiation
therapy delivery of respiratory moving targets, the quality assurance (QA) tools have not
been developed in parallel. For quantitative determination of the absorbed dose in an organ
in the patient for a specific type of treatment procedure accuracy of respiratory motion
management techniques, additional respiratory motion phantoms are required.
A group of Indian scientists have developed a novel and cheap 3D robotic motion phantom
that can reproduce the lung motion of a human during breathing. The phantom is part of a
platform not only emulates the human lung motion as a patient is breathing but can also be
used to check if the radiation is being correctly focussed on a moving target. The phantom is
placed inside a CT scanner on the bed in place of the human, and it emulates human lung
motion as it is irradiated during therapy.
During irradiation, consistently high-quality images of advanced 4D radiation therapy
treatments are obtained with minimum exposure of the patients and workers. Before the
targeted radiation is delivered to a human subject, its effectiveness in focusing only on
the tumor is checked with this phantom.
Professor Ashish Dutta, Professor at IIT Kanpur, along with Professor K. J. Maria Das,
Professor from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS),
Lucknow developed the programmable robotic motion the platform for the quality
assurance of respiratory motion management techniques in radiation therapy.
The major part of the phantom is a dynamic platform over which any dosimetric or imaging
quality assurance devices can be placed, and the platform can mimic 3D tumor motion by
using three independent stepper-motor systems. This platform is placed on the bed where the
patient lays down during radiation therapy.
As phantom emulates the lung movement, a moving or gating window is used to focus the
radiation from the radiation machine on the moving tumour. Detectors placed in the phantom
help detect whether the radiation is localised on the tumour.
The dose effectiveness is checked during therapy. The researchers are in the process of
testing the system on a phantom. Once done, they will test it on human beings.
This is the first time in India for manufacturing this type of robotic phantoms, and it is more
affordable than other imported products available in the market as the program can be
changed to produce different types of lung motion.
The technology developed with support from the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies
programme of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India,
and aligned with the ‘Make in India’ initiative is currently under final testing in SGPGIMS,
Lucknow.
The innovators are further trying to commercialize the product, which can be used in place
of the overseas model that is very much more expensive and does not give access to the
control software.
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