BC Cancer Agency: Current Research and Looking Ahead

The research my colleagues and I are currently focusing on is the development of a new electrical impedance-based system for simultaneous cardiac and respiratory gating. This technique involves applying constant low electrical current signals to the body and monitoring change in voltage across the chest area to indicate breathing and cardiac activity simultaneously. This device will be linked to the radiation treatment device so that we can control delivery of the radiation beam during the appropriate portion of breathing and cardiac cycle. This way we may be able to improve delivery of radiation.

We have a team of medical physicists and radiation oncologists from the BC Cancer Agency Fraser Valley Centre and engineering professors from Simon Fraser University working together on the development this technology.

With our research any patient requiring thoracic, upper abdominal or breast radiotherapy could potentially benefit from simultaneous cardiac and respiratory gating.  An improved, non-invasive, real-time respiratory gating system will result in better tumour targeting and reduced side effects. The major patient groups this will impact include breast, lung, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, and renal cancer patients, as well as lymphoma and sarcoma patients with thoracic or upper abdominal disease.

Thanks very much for reading my blog,
Kirpal