King Abdullah Medical City- Makkah has introduced a new True Beam linear accelerator for the treatment of oncology patients. It is one of cutting-edge American machines using radiation beams to treat tumors precisely and with minimal side effects. The hospital also added new technologies to radiotherapy department including Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) Respiratory Gating, which is primarily applied in the left breath (the X-ray target) to displace it from adjacent heart and protect it from beams and therefore tracking the target automatically. The therapeutic rays is released when the left breast is away from the heart during deep inspiration. Treatment stops automatically when the heart approaches the target during inspiration. These new technologies help the radiotherapy team to identify and track the tumor precisely, and at the same time protecting the healthy organs surrounding the tumor.
According to the Medical City, the new technologies also include four-dimensional simulation therapy for treatment of lung, liver and upper gastrointestinal tract cancers. The technique precisely identifies the tumor and all its changeable motion as a result of breathing and lung, diaphragm and heart motion.