Doctors in India may soon have a new facility to simulate the lung motion of a patient to help deliver focused radiation, using the 3D robotic motion phantom.
Indian scientists have developed a 3D robotic motion phantom that can reproduce the lung motion of a human during breathing. The phantom is part of a platform that can emulate the human lung motion as well as check if the radiation is being correctly focussed on a moving target.
According to scientists, the system emulates a human lung when placed inside a CT scanner. During irradiation, consistently high-quality images of advanced 4D radiation therapy treatments are obtained with minimum exposure of the patients and workers.
The major part of the phantom is a dynamic platform over which any dosimetric or imaging quality assurance devices can be placed, and the platform can mimic 3D tumour motion by using three independent stepper-motor systems
Professor Ashish Dutta, Professor at IIT Kanpur, along with Professor K. J. Maria Das, Professor from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow developed this programmable robotic motion for improving the respiratory motion management techniques in radiation therapy.
The platform can mimic 3D tumour motion by using three independent stepper-motor systems. A moving or gating window is used to focus the radiation from the radiation machine on the moving tumour. Detectors placed in the phantom help detect whether the radiation is localised on the tumour. The researchers are in the process of testing the system on a phantom. Once done, they will test it on human beings.
The system is an assurance to improvement in healthcare systems in the country and an encouragement for all young scientists to develop indegenous products that can be both highly effective and cost-friendly.
