: 1210872542

It is estimated more than 200,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed this year with prostate cancer.
Now, patients diagnosed in the metropolitan area can benefit from a new piece of equipment that limits the damaging side effects of radiation treatment.

The equipment is called the Calypso 4D Localization System and it is nicknamed “GPS for the Body.” And the only hospital that has it locally is Long Island Jewish at North
Shore University Hospital.

“This represents a paradigm change in our ability to deliver high doses of radiation in a safer environment,” said Dr. Louis Potters, radiation oncologist at the hospital.
Of the men diagnosed with this type of cancer, Dr. Potters said 175,000 of those are treatable. There are three types of treatment: surgery, radiation and seed implantation. Calypso is an add-on for patients receiving beam radiation. Its purpose is not to increase the success rate of the treatment, but to reduce the radiation’s side effects.
“The concept of external radiation is almost like spotlight beams aimed at the tumor,” said Dr. Potters. Over the last 15 years, technology has been enhanced to more accurately target the cancer cells, which in turn have resulted in a higher success rate.

The problem with radiation treatment is that the prostate can move – via the patient coughing or yawning or a change in volume of the bladder – and healthy tissue can be affected.

“When you deal with radiation beams, a millimeter shift in the prostate may be meaningful,” said Dr. Potters.
But the Calypso systems allows doctors to tell when the prostate shifts, allowing them to stop treatment if necessary to realign the patient’s body. This is done by permanently inserting three beacons no larger than the size of a grain of rice in the prostate. It’s a simple, 10-minute procedure, Dr. Potters said.

Then, when the radiation treatment is given, doctors can track the location of the prostate, much like a GPS system tracks the location of a vehicle.

“The patients on a day-to-day basis don’t feel any different,” he said. “There is no difference in treatment, but long-term, the accuracy of treatment will be translated into fewer side effects,” such as incontinence, impotence, sterility and lymphedema. The technology has been in some clinics for over a year now, and Dr. Potters said those locations are starting to confirm fewer complications.
Dr. Potters said he has been treating prostate cancer now for 17 years and he finds it amazing at how much the prostate actually moves during the course of treatment. He was initially cynical of this technology, but now believes it will prove beneficial over time and may evolve into becoming a standard of care.

“The hospital has a history of pioneering a lot of technological advances that are now commonplace,” he said. “This is just another in a long line of technologies where North Shore LIJ is ahead of the pack.”