What is MRI simulation?
The MRI simulator is a powerful magnet (3-Tesla strength) that produces high quality medical images of the tumor and nearby organs. It is similar to an MRI, but used for radiation therapy. With this state-of-the-art suite, we are able to use MRI images for specific targeting of tumors.
What is simulation for radiation therapy?
Before you begin radiation treatment, your radiation therapy team carefully plans your treatment in a process called radiation simulation. Treatment planning usually involves positioning your body, making marks on your skin and taking imaging scans.
What is a planning MRI?
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful imaging tool for planning of radiation therapy treatments. Treatment planning is a process that uses 3D images of the patient as a backdrop for designing the delivery of X-ray radiation to kill cancer cells, and for calculating the predicted radiation dose.
How long does a simulation for radiation take?
Simulation often takes 30-45 minutes. During simulation, you will feel the table move to different positions.
How is radiation mapping done?
While you’re lying in your position, your radiation therapists will take imaging scans of your treatment area. They may use an X-ray machine called a simulator or a computed tomography (CT) scan machine (see Figure 1). Your care team will only use these scans to map your treatment area.
What does mapping for radiation mean?
Simulation (also called a mapping or planning session) is a procedure to plan your radiation treatments. It’s done to map your treatment site, make sure you get the right dose (amount) of radiation, and limit the amount of radiation that gets to your nearby tissues.
Why is simulation important in radiotherapy?
The simulator is needed for a radiotherapy department to produce an image of a treatment field area in relation to surface marking on a patient it is important that the simulator is like the treatment unit in design such as beam collimation, gantry and couch so that a reproducible ‘set-up’ can be achieved.
Why is MRI not used in treatment planning?
Image intensity in MRI is not directly related to electron density, and this limits the use of MRI-only RT planning and MRI-simulators. MRI can, however, provide an estimate of electron density for RT planning and for accurate PET image reconstruction in PET-MR systems (Martinez-Moller and Nekolla, 2012).
How is MRI used in radiotherapy?
MRI is used within the radiotherapy workflow in different scenarios. In external-beam radiotherapy MRI is used mostly in combination with CT to facilitate delineation of targets and organs at risk. The CT with delineated structures is then used for treatment planning and dose calculation.
What happens after radiation simulation?
After simulation, you’ll have a few days to a few weeks to relax while your radiation oncologist creates a unique plan of treatment taking into account your diagnosis, the type of radiation machine that will be used, the amount of radiation needed and the number of treatments to be given.
What are the steps of radiation therapy?
Overall, there are five basic steps of radiation therapy that we can share to give patients an idea of what to expect. These steps include initial consultation, simulation, treatment planning, treatment delivery and post treatment follow-up. Consultation is the first step of the radiation therapy process.