October 31 2007  


 

Nucletron’s Italian branch office (Nuclital) organised a very successful meeting for the North-Eastern part of the country. Nuclital provided a platform for users to present and share their experiences on the clinical use of Oncentra MasterPlan. Many customers from all around the region participated. Professor A. Ahnesjö of the University of Uppsala in Sweden was one of the invited speakers. He discussed the new modelling of the dose fluency implementation and also about the innovative ideas for GPU based dose calculations.


After a warm welcome from Dr Strata, the user meeting started with a range of presentations. Dr Brambilla of the Niguarda Hospital in Milan was the first to give a presentation on the hospital’s experience with Oncentra MasterPlan used in a very busy and fully digital environment, integrated with Oncentra Information Management and Oncentra Visir. Niguarda has tested the RT workflow in the hospital, integrating Nucletron’s treatment planning and verification systems in their existing PACS, conform the DICOM and HL7 standards and IHE recommendations. Oncentra passed the tests as expected. Next to that, Niguarda thoroughly tested the functionalities of Oncentra MasterPlan in clinical use, following IAEA TRS-430 (2004) and ESTRO Booklet N. 7 (2004) protocols on Clinac 600, 2100 Varian MSI, Synergy and Elekta’s Synergy S linac. The outcomes for treatment planning based on photons and electrons proved to be very positive.


The second speaker, Dr Montanari from A.O. San Gerardo in Monza discussed the verification results of Oncentra MasterPlan. Before going clinical, they calculated data which was then compared to data measured earlier. The results were positive, as expected. This clinic is using Oncentra MasterPlan in the daily routine and is very pleased with the system. 


The third speaker of the day, Dr Bonsignore of the Lecco Hospital presented the work they have done on photons dosimetric verifications with Oncentra MasterPlan using Elekta’s Precise linac with 6Mev and 18Mev energy and MLC. The results for both Pencil Beam and Collapsed Cone were very accurate.


Subsequently, Dr Malisan from Udine presented their preliminary results on treatment planning using EDW (Enhanced Dynamic Wedge) in Varian’s Clinac 600C linac with Oncentra MasterPlan. The system was tested using seven different angles (from 10° to 60°) for symmetric and asymmetric fields. For this, both the Pencil Beam and Collapsed Cone algorithm were used.


Finalising the session the host speaker, Dr Stea from Mestre talked about whether to use the Pencil Beam or the Collapsed Cone algorithm for planning in lung and pharynx cases using the Arc therapy technique. Some comparisons were shown and it became evident that Collapsed Cone provides better accuracy in the dose calculation.


It is clear that Oncentra MasterPlan is being used more frequently in Italian clinics, providing current users of PLATO and new users opportunities to explore shifting dimensions in treatment planning.



About Nucletron 

Nucletron is a knowledge-based leader in Radiation Oncology, working with clinical teams to realize innovative solutions that improve patient care. Nucletron strives to offer the best possible choice of radiation modalities through integrated products, software and services. Critical to the Nucletron philosophy is the establishment of close working relationships with individual clinical teams – reconfiguring traditional boundaries between customer and solution provider. Many Nucletron employees have clinical experience delivering oncology care, providing an in-depth understanding of the complex needs of clinicians. The investors in the independent Nucletron company include AlpInvest Partners, Advent International, the Nucletron Management and Employees.


For more information, contact your sales representative.


Italian customer contact:

Dr. Gabriele Aragona
Nuclital Sales & Marketing
Office phone: +39 039 322848
Mobil phone: +39 349 3081419
Email: gabriele.aragona@it.nucletron.com


International contact:

Eric Sewsingh
EMEA Marketing manager
Office phone: +31 318557 385
Mobile phone: +31 654 752 704
Email: eric.sewsingh@nl.nucletron.com