Mary Bird Perkins Expands its Leading-edge Radiation Therapy Treatment Options
Center Installs State-Of-The-Art Elekta Infinity System
(Baton Rouge, LA) Residents of the Greater Baton Rouge area now have access to the latest generation of cancer-fighting technology - the Infinity. This advanced radiotherapy accelerator has been installed at Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center in Baton Rouge located on the campus of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. The Infinity is made by Elekta, a world leader in radiation therapy pioneering significant innovations and clinical solutions for treating cancer.
Mary Bird Perkins offers a variety of best-of-class radiation therapy options allowing its patient care team to aggressively treat cancer without accepting the limitations of a one-size-fits-all approach. The acquisition of Infinity further demonstrates Mary Bird Perkins' long-standing dedication to offer patients the skills of an expert team and access to the most advanced technology options available.
"The combination of radiation therapy treatment resources made available by Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center is unparalleled in Louisiana," said Maurice King, M.D., Medical Director, Mary Bird Perkins. "Together our team of radiation oncologists, medical dosimetrists and medical physicists has the most advanced resources available in the field to ensure that each patient's treatment is customized to their individual fight against cancer."
Elekta's Infinity is a state-of-the-art image guided linear accelerator that incorporates best in class computerized medical imaging technology to treat people with radiation therapy. Because of its superior image guidance capabilities, Infinity can be very useful in treating, as an example, prostate cancer, as well as cancers of the head and neck. The Infinity also brings the promise of a technology called VMAT, a new and developing tool in the field of radiation therapy.
VMAT (Volumetric Intensity Modulated Arc Therapy) is intended to shorten treatment time without compromising quality of care. Elekta believes VMAT's shorter treatment times will translate into increased patient comfort and improved accuracy by reducing time spent during treatment.
When Mary Bird Perkins opened its fifth location in Gonzales, LA in partnership with St. Elizabeth Hospital earlier this year, the first of Mary Bird Perkins' $20 million investment in Elekta Systems was installed at the new facility. VMAT was under development at the time and now that it is available, it will be a part of the Elekta machines in both locations: Baton Rouge and Gonzales.
"We look forward to working with Elekta to deploy VMAT technology in Baton Rouge and Gonzales for the benefit of cancer patients," said John Gibbons, Ph.D. Chief of Clinical Physics, Mary Bird Perkins. "In many cases, we believe Infinity's VMAT will allow us to deliver superior treatments."
"Every cancer case is unique and personal, and Mary Bird Perkins is committed to providing the latest options to our treatment team," said Todd D. Stevens, President and CEO, Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center. "The options offered by Mary Bird Perkins are potential solutions for very common to very rare and complex cancers."
Mary Bird Perkins continues to expand its technology arsenal with additions like the Elekta Infinity in its efforts to provide its highly-experienced radiation oncologists the best possible options for custom radiation treatments, affording patients their best opportunity to beat cancer.
In addition to the Elekta Infinity, Mary Bird Perkins' comprehensive radiation therapy services available across its five locations throughout southeast Louisiana include Conformal Therapy, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), TomoTherapy IMRT, Imaged Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT), BrainLAB's Novalis® stereotactic radiosurgery and radiotherapy, extra-cranial stereotactic radiotherapy, adaptive radiotherapy, electron conformal therapy and advanced tumor localization techniques including 4-Dimensional CT and CT/PET, and MRI. Mary Bird Perkins also offers a wide range of low and high-dose brachytherapy treatment techniques for prostate, breast, choroidal melanoma, and gynecological cancers.
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center has been fighting cancer for over 35 years with locations in Baton Rouge, Covington, Gonzales, Hammond and Houma. In Baton Rouge, it has a comprehensive cancer program accredited by the American College of Surgeons with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center.
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