By melding PET-CT, a proven modality for visualizing cancer, with radiation, one of the most effect ways to treat the disease, RefleXion’s BgRT utilizes the cancer itself to guide radiation delivery, even in moving tumors. The first to develop this method, RefleXion has taken a leap forward in the ongoing goal of managing motion by reducing margins and diminishing toxicity.
RefleXion Biology Guided Radiotherapy (BgRT)
A Quantum Leap Beyond Conventional Radiotherapy
Despite growing clinical evidence suggesting that a combination of systemic and local radiation therapy improves survival for patients with multiple, metastatic tumors, conventional radiotherapy does not allow clinicians to treat them as such. This is due to the difficulty that anatomical imaging (X-ray, CT, and MRI) has in accurately distinguishing tumors from normal healthy organs, which is compounded by tumor/organ motions. Because of this, approximately 90% of the more than 320,000 patients diagnosed with metastatic disease annually in the United States are not eligible for ablative radiotherapy (RT) due to its limitations.
A Quantum Leap Beyond Conventional Radiotherapy
Despite growing clinical evidence suggesting that a combination of systemic and local radiation therapy improves survival for patients with multiple, metastatic tumors, conventional radiotherapy does not allow clinicians to treat them as such. This is due to the difficulty that anatomical imaging (X-ray, CT, and MRA) has in accurately distinguishing tumors from normal healthy organs, which is compounded by tumor/organ motions. Because of this, approximately 90% of the more than 320,000 patients diagnosed with metastatic disease annually in the United States are not eligible for ablative radiotherapy (RT) due to its limitations.
Combining Functional and Anatomical imaging to Differentiate Tumors from Healthy Organs
Biology-guided radiotherapy, or BgRT, combines both functional imaging (PET scan) and anatomical imaging in guiding cytotoxic radiation doses directly to active tumors while reducing the volume of normal tissue, thereby reducing cumulative toxicity. This technology also enables the treatment of multiple oligometastatic and polymetastic tumors simultaneously, typically over the course of five treatments in one week.
Real-Time, Tracked Dose Delivery
For each BgRT treatment, the patient is given tumor-specific radiotracers that target each tumor, which light up the tumor tissues during treatment. These emissions are then detected by the PET scanner, which guides the radiation beam. BgRT allows for real-time, accurate radiation delivery to tumors, even in those subject to motion. RefleXion is currently the only radiation technology that can perform BgRT.
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