Nottingham City Hospital goes live with advanced radiotherapy CT scanner
In order to enhance the standard of cancer care delivered to its local population, especially with increased momentum of lung cancer screening programmes, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has invested in two AI-assisted CT scanners developed specifically for advanced radiation oncology.
The UK’s first Aquilion Exceed LB CT from Canon Medical Systems UK, installed at City Hospital, is delivering quicker patient scans with better image quality and reconstruction times at lower dose.
Radiotherapy services manager Lee Beresford said: “As a regional centre for stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, we require high precision visualisation of tumours to ensure accurate treatment planning and to minimise damage to surrounding healthy tissue. We anticipate that this need will grow, as the NHS Targeted Lung Health Check programme focuses this year on past and current smokers aged 55 to 74 in our area. With one of the highest mortality rates for lung cancer in England, it is estimated that more than 300 new cases of lung cancer will be identified earlier in Nottingham by the proactive health screening initiative and these patients will then require radiation treatment planning.”
The Aquilion Exceed LB CT introduces Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE), a deep learning reconstruction AI technology. AiCE results in images with minimal noise, high definition and clarity for clear delineation of the tumour. It features SEMAR, a software that reduces artefacts from metal implants to improve visualisation of soft tissue and bone in target areas. A 90cm wide bore enables comfortable patient positioning, accuracy in the simulation process and what is said to be the largest extended field of view on the market.
Beresford added: “Our radiation therapy planning role will be buoyed by the new Aquilion Exceed LB CT as it will help us deliver more efficient and accurate insights for greater clinical confidence and, hopefully, improve survival rates. We have already seen improvements in radiotherapy scanning efficiency since the new scanner went live and this has enabled our team to have some extra capacity to increase the quality of time spent with patients. It is important to chat or discuss the process, as for some people it is the first appointment in their radiotherapy cancer treatment pathway.”
A second system is due to be commissioned this autumn.
Picture: Canon Medical Systems UK account manager Midlands and Northern Ireland Billy Erwin, head of radiotherapy physics Keith Langmack, radiotherapy services manager Lee Beresford, CT clinical development manager Mark Condron and radiotherapy physicist Jonathan Allred.
Published on page 4 of the September 2022 issue of RAD Magazine.