A 4D SCANNER TO “FILM” THE TUMOR

Thanks to a donation of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Center Antoine Lacassagne acquired a 4D scanner, inaugurated on February 23, 2017 at the Mediterranean Institute of Protontherapy.

With this new technology and the Sentinel system, the Mediterranean Institute of Protontherapy can treat patients with “mobile” tumors, that is to say which oscillate with breathing. Indeed, for these tumors, a 4D scanner is necessary to make a “film” of the tumor (4D for 4 dimensions, 3 for space and 1 for time). The medical team can thus precisely identify the displacements of the tumor with the respiration and define precisely the limits to be irradiated. The appreciation of these displacements is more crucial for children for whom the organs are close to each other.

Immediately concerned by this project, the Stavros Niarchos Foudation made it possible, through its donation, to fully finance this new equipment.

Thanks to the implementation of this 4D scanner at the Mediterranean Institute of Protontherapy, the patients, and especially children, can stay in a unit area for their treatment in High Energy Protontherapy. Indeed, for children and their parents coming from other regions of France or from foreign countries, the proximity of the residential care home “La Consolata” allows a simplified circuit: consultations, scanner, treatment and accommodation are proposed on the same area.

Moreover, for young children who require anesthesia for each CT scan and for each treatment, to stay in a unique place reduces the number of anesthesia, facilitates contacts and reduces the stress of children and their families

A 4D SCANNER TO “FILM” THE TUMOR