Indian Scientists Develop 3D Robotic Phantom For Treating Lung Cancer

Indian scientists have developed an affordable and novel three-dimensional (3D) robotic motion phantom that can reproduce human lung motion, the Ministry of Science and Technology said on Monday. The device will stimulate the lung motion of cancer patients to help deliver focused radiation to upper abdomen or thoracic region.

The programmable robotic motion has been developed by Ashish Dutta, Professor at IIT Kanpur, along with Professor K. J. Maria Das, and Professor from Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS), Lucknow.

Breathing Motion Tampers Radiation Therapy In Cancer Patients

Breathing motion is a hurdle in delivering focused radiation dose to the cancer tumour attached to the upper abdomen. The motion exposes an area large than the tumor during cancer treatment. It results in an impact on the surrounding tissue due to the radiation.

The simulation of the lung movement of a cancer patient can help in customising a focused radiation treatment, minimising the impact on surrounding tissues. But before this is used on a person, it needs to be tested on the phantom. The 3D Robotic phantom can be used for testing purposes.

"Recent technological development have resulted in state-of-the-art motion management techniques like-gating and tracking. Though there is incremental development in radiation therapy delivery of respiratory moving targets, the quality assurance (QA) tools have not been developed in parallel. For quantitative determination of the absorbed dose in an organ in the patient for a specific type of treatment procedure accuracy of respiratory motion management techniques, additional respiratory motion phantoms are required." The statement said.

How Does The Phantom Work

In Addition to simulating the breathing motion, the robotic phantom checks if the radiation is being correctly focused on a moving target. It is placed in a CT scanner on the bed in place of the human, and it emulates human lung motion as it is irradiated during therapy. During irradiation, consistently high-quality images of advanced 4D radiation therapy treatments are obtained with minimum exposure of the patients and workers.

This process helps in checking the effectiveness of the radiation in focusing only on the tumor.

First Indian Robotic Phantom

Ministry of Science and Technology said that it is the first time that such a robotic phantom has been manufactured in India. It has been developed with support from the Advanced Manufacturing Technologies programme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Government of India, is under final testing at SGPGIMS, Lucknow.

The phantom is considerably cheaper than its imported counterpart, and the innovators are looking for ways to commercialise the product.

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