What is DART?
It seems that everything in medicine these days goes by an acronym. DART stands for Dynamic Adaptive RadioTherapy, and has been developed at the Dattoli Cancer Center as the most sophisticated form of radiation therapy currently available. It is superior to all previous generations of intensity modulated radiotherapy - Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT) and 3D Conformal Radiation Therapy (3D-CRT). DART incorporates every device used for Imaged-guided IMRT, taking it to new level of precision and control. This increased level of precision allows us to shoot microbeams of radiation to targets the size of tiny dots, referred to as “voxels.” Each voxel is the size of a cubic millimeter. This degree of control and focus enables us to greatly reduce the risk of damage to the bowel and bladder, while preserving erectile function
DART encompasses use of the 3rd generation SonArrray, an ultrasound and camera-based image guided system that is employed seconds before each radiation treatment to make sure the prostate and tumor are in the exact same location for each beam application. Even the simple motion of breathing can shift the position of the prostate. We can track, anticipate and correct for this movement by our special “respiratory gating” technology.
The On-Board Imaging Device (OBI) with the 3rd generation Cone Beam Helical Tomography add an additional layer of accuracy checks that ensures a level of precision not dreamed of just five years ago.
In order to make sure that each microbeam reaches the designated target, the 4th dimension of motion must be taken into account. All the components of DART enable us to deliver the right dose to the right target at precisely the right time – each time and every time. Based on physiological and anatomical changes that occur between and during treatment our physicians, physicists, dosimetrists, therapists and combination of technical equipment can modulate or alter the original plan to account for these daily changes. This highly integrated approach is the key to DART - intra and interfractional changes, allowing for the most precise targeting of tumor(-s) imaginable.
It should be noted that with DART, not only is the prostate tracked, but also specific areas within the prostate are tracked as are all of the critical surrounding tissues. Moreover, during the tracking, minibeams are dynamiclaly adjusted to reach their designated target (like "smart missiles.")
