St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital Enhances Radiation Technologies to Provide Comprehensive Oncology Treatment Options
HOUSTON (February 8, 2010) – St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (St. Luke’s) provides comprehensive, full-service radiation oncology care with the ability to deliver targeted radiation therapy and stereotactic radiosurgery for all tumors anywhere in the body. St. Luke's offers three advanced treatment options: Houston’s first CyberKnife® radiosurgery system, high-dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy and multiple Varian accelerators equipped with on-board imaging, including Trilogy.
“With this comprehensive spectrum of radiation technology, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital can provide the most effective radiation treatment based on patients’ specific medical needs,” said Steven Carpenter, MD, radiation oncologist, St. Luke’s. “These technologies also allow us to expand our patient base and continue to serve the area as one of the most extensive radiation treatment centers.”
St. Luke’s is the only hospital in Houston to offer CyberKnife®, the world’s first and only robotic radiosurgery system that tracks, detects and corrects for tumor and patient motion during treatment with sub-millimeter accuracy throughout the body, including the brain, prostate, lung, spine, pancreas, liver and kidney. Benefits to the patient include no anesthesia or incision and immediate return to normal activity.
HDR brachytherapy technique uses a relatively intense source of radiation to deliver a therapeutic dose of radiation through temporarily placed needles, catheters or other applicators. HDR has been used to treat cancers of the cervix, endometrium, breast, bronchus, esophagus, head, neck and soft tissue sarcomas and prostate.
The recently installed Trilogy system is the first in a new generation of cancer care systems. The versatile Trilogy delivers 3-D conformal radiotherapy, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, and stereotactic radiosurgery. Clinical benefits include high dose rate for shorter sessions, rapid on-board imaging allowing patients to be repositioned quickly and accurately, cone-beam CT fine tunes patient set-ups and real-time position management times beam delivery.
St. Luke’s Radiation Therapy and CyberKnife® facility is located at 2491 S. Braeswood. For more information about St. Luke’s oncology treatment options, visit www.stlukestexas.com.
