BY JESSICA ROUSE

A new study at the Calvary Mater Hospital is being described as a game changer for cancer patients.

Prescribing treatment dosage for prostate cancer patients today involves the patient having an MRI scan which is used to define the body’s anatomy and targets, then a second scan – a CT scan – is used to work out how much dosage and what kind of treatment plan is necessary for the anatomy and targets found in the initial scan.

The new study is looking at the use of MRI scanning technology alone to find the anatomy and targets and work out dosage and treatment plans.

Leading the study is Professor Peter Greer who believes the benefits will be well worth it because in just using one scan the results are more accurate, and it’s also cost effective.

“We’re hoping that this will make the treatments slightly a little bit more accurate for the patients and then in the future possibly we can even reduce the side effects of the treatments by giving less dose to the normal tissues because we’re able to deliver the treatments a little bit more accurately,” said Professor Peter Greer.
25 prostate cancer patients are currently undergoing the study which is set to wrap up at the end of the year, and researchers are confident the technique could be used for all patients as early as next year.
“We’re starting with prostate because we have large numbers of patients who use MRI, but we’re also working on developing this technique for other sites such as other pelvic cancers, brain cancer, head and neck cancer as well,” said Professor Peter Greer.




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