Adaptive Radiation Therapy: Personalized Cancer Treatment

As you explore radiation treatment options, you may hear about adaptive radiation therapy. At Oncology Las Vegas, we are proud to offer this advanced cancer treatment approach, one that evolves alongside your body and needs. With cutting-edge technologies like HyperSight and AlignRT included in our Ethos program, we are bringing a new level of precision and personalization to radiation therapy.

Adaptive Radiation Therapy: Ethos

What Is Adaptive Radiation Therapy?

Traditional radiation therapy relies on a onetime treatment plan created before the start of your treatment. While effective, this treatment plan does not account for daily changes in your anatomy such as tumor shrinkage or shifts in nearby organs.

Adaptive radiation therapy provides a solution to these challenges. Adaptive treatment uses daily imaging and advanced software to adjust your treatment in real time, ensuring your therapy is always as accurate as possible.

Think of adaptive radiation therapy as a GPS that recalculates your route during a long trip to avoid traffic or roadblocks. Adaptive therapy ensures the radiation targets the cancer with extreme precision, even as your body changes through a treatment course that lasts for days or weeks.

Why Does Adaptive Therapy Matter?

Our bodies are constantly in motion. Tumors can shrink during treatment, organs can move slightly from day to day, and weight loss is common for patients going through cancer treatment. Adaptive therapy captures these changes through daily imaging and adapts your treatment plan accordingly, maximizing the radiation’s impact on cancer cells while minimizing exposure to healthy tissue. This aims to increase the effectiveness of treatment and reduce the risk of side effects. The overall goal is to improve your long-term outcome and enhance your quality of life.

Ethos/Adaptive Radiation

Technologies That Power Our Adaptive Treatments

At Oncology Las Vegas, our adaptive radiation therapy is powered by Ethos, a next-generation radiation treatment platform that combines real-time imaging and artificial intelligence. Ethos allows us to see what’s happening inside your body before every session and adapt your treatment. This all happens in minutes while you are laying on the treatment table.

Our Ethos platform includes:

HyperSight: This technology provides high-quality images quickly, allowing for precise targeting of tumors and the surrounding anatomy. With HyperSight, we can make smart and fast decisions during your treatment session. Additionally, HyperSight helps remove metal artifacts and artifacts related to motion.

AlignRT: This technology uses surface tracking with 3D stereo cameras to monitor your body position in real time. It ensures that radiation is delivered only when you are in the correct position, helping us avoid unnecessary delivery of radiation to nearby healthy tissue.

Together, these tools help us deliver personalized, safe, efficient, and effective radiation treatments.

What to Expect

Your experience with adaptive therapy will feel similar to traditional radiation treatment ‌but with some important enhancements:

  • Consultation: Your journey begins with a consultation with your radiation oncologist. We’ll review your diagnosis, imaging, and medical history to determine if radiation therapy, and specifically, adaptive therapy, is the right option for you.

  • Simulation and Treatment Planning: Before treatment starts, we’ll perform a CT simulation scan to map out your anatomy. This will help us define your initial treatment plan. This scan serves as a baseline for comparison during future sessions.

  • Daily Imaging: Before each treatment session, we’ll take a new scan of the treatment area using HyperSight imaging. These scans allow us to detect changes and update your plan as needed.

  • Real-Time Adaptation: If your anatomy has shifted or changed, our team will re-optimize your treatment plan in real time, so each session is customized for that day. The adaptive process happens in about 10 to 20 minutes.

  • Precise Delivery: AlignRT monitors your position throughout treatment. If you move even slightly, the system can pause radiation until you are in the correct position again.

  • Follow-Up: After your course of therapy is complete, we’ll continue to monitor your progress and health through regular follow-up visits.

Ethos/Adaptive Radiation

Who Can Benefit From Adaptive Therapy?

Adaptive radiation therapy is especially beneficial for cancers located near critical organs or tissues that are sensitive to radiation, such as:

  • Prostate cancer
  • Lung cancer
  • Head and neck cancer
  • Gynecological cancer
  • Liver cancer
  • Pancreatic cancer
  • Bladder cancer
  • Rectal cancer

If your tumor is located in an area that tends to move or change shape during treatment, adaptive therapy may offer a solution.

By optimizing your treatment to the anatomy of the day, adaptive therapy helps reduce radiation exposure to healthy tissues. This can result in fewer typical radiation therapy side effects such as fatigue, bowel or bladder issues, and skin irritation, allowing you to focus on healing with fewer interruptions to your daily life.

Compassionate, Patient-Centered Care

Our aim at Oncology Las Vegas is not only to provide the most advanced cancer treatments available, but also to make sure you feel supported every step of the way. From your first consultation through your follow-up visits, our entire team is here to ensure you receive treatment that is tailored to align with your needs and goals.

We understand how overwhelming a cancer diagnosis can be. That’s why we’re proud to offer adaptive radiation therapy as part of our commitment to innovation, safety, and compassionate care. With Ethos, HyperSight, and AlignRT, we are transforming the way radiation therapy is delivered, bringing hope and healing through precision and personalization.