LEWISTOWN–The Varian Real-time Position Management (RPM) system at the Geisinger-Lewistown Cancer Treatment Center was recently upgraded to include radiation treatment for lung, breast and upper abdominal cancer patients.

According to Peter Goyer, medical physicist, the RPM system had been used solely as a diagnostic tool, to monitor the positioning of tumors in the chest area as patients breathed. Once the positioning was established, a treatment volume around the tumor would be determined and radiation was administered at a constant rate. With the upgrade, Goyer said, a treatment volume is still established, but the margin of that volume is significantly smaller. Goyer explained that RPM provides treatment at specific breathing points; as the patient breathes and the tumor moves, the radiation is administered directly to the tumor, pausing treatment when the tumor is out of the system’s monitoring range.

“It minimizes the dose to the healthy tissue and increases the dose to the tumor,” said Matthew Kwiterovich, operations manager for radiation and oncology. Kwiterovich said there are already three patients scheduled to use this equipment. “All of them are excited and thankful for the availability of such a technology to help them get better,” said Kwiterovich, who noted that the first patient could be doing so within a month.

According to a recent press release, the RPM uses an “infrared tracking camera and a reflective marker,” then measures “the patient’s respiratory pattern and range of motion and displays them as a waveform.”