Hardware that copes with tumours that move when the patient breathes: belts and cameras that switch the beam on only in part of the breathing cycle, devices that hold the breath, and implanted beacons or X-ray tracking that let the beam follow the tumour.
Lung, liver, pancreatic and breast targets move by a centimetre or more with each breath. Gating systems monitor a surrogate, a reflective block or belt on the chest (Varian's RPM and its successor RGSC), a spirometer (Dyn'R SDX) or the surface itself, and enable the beam only within a chosen window; 4D-CT during planning maps the motion. Breath-hold devices such as Elekta's Active Breathing Coordinator close a valve at a set lung volume so the tumour is treated in a reproducible position, with surface guidance often replacing the device. Tracking goes further: Varian's Calypso reads the position of three implanted electromagnetic transponders ten times a second and can stop the beam or drive the couch; Accuray's Synchrony on CyberKnife and Radixact fits a model between surface markers and periodic X-ray images of fiducials or the tumour itself, then moves the robot or the collimator so the beam follows; MR-linacs gate on live cine MRI of the tumour with no implant.
The trade-offs are treatment time (gated beams may be on for a third of each cycle), the invasiveness of fiducial or transponder implantation, surrogate drift when internal and external motion decouple, and, for tracking, the complexity of the model and the QA it demands.
External surrogates, spirometry or implanted electromagnetic and radio-opaque markers report the position of a moving target; the beam is enabled only within a motion window, the breath is held at a set volume, or the beam is steered to follow the target.
Query for this technology: (TITLE:"Respiratory gating and tumour tracking systems" OR ABSTRACT:"Respiratory gating and tumour tracking systems" OR TITLE:"RPM, ABC, Calypso, Synchrony" OR ABSTRACT:"RPM, ABC, Calypso, Synchrony") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Respiratory gating and tumour tracking systems (RPM, ABC, Calypso, Synchrony), not a curated reading list.
Shares Elekta, Varian (Siemens Healthineers), Breast cancer (all types), Prostate cancer and the tag machines-wave2.
Shares In-room imaging for radiotherapy (cone-beam CT, ExacTrac, CT-on-rails, HyperSight), MR-guided adaptive radiotherapy, Breast cancer (all types), Prostate cancer and the tag machines-wave2.
Shares Elekta, Varian (Siemens Healthineers), Breast cancer (all types) and the tag machines-wave2.
Shares Hepatocellular carcinoma, Breast cancer (all types), Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tag machines-wave2.
Shares Breast cancer (all types), Prostate cancer and the tag machines-wave2.
Shares Hepatocellular carcinoma, Breast cancer (all types), Prostate cancer, Non-small-cell lung cancer and the tag machines-wave2.
Shares SBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy), Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer and the tag machines-wave2.
Shares Varian (Siemens Healthineers) and the tag machines-wave2.