How Trilogy Works - Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute | Flint, MI

The Trilogy System uses advanced CT imaging to precisely target tumors and deliver high dose radiation.

Trilogy is built around an advanced medical linear accelerator, a machine that rotates 360 degrees around the patient to deliver radiotherapy treatment from many angles.

The Trilogy accelerator has been enhanced for stereotactic applications, which means it delivers higher does of radiation to smaller areas over a shorter period of time. Patients receive faster, more effective treatment, and reduce radiation volume, minimizing side-effects and complications while enhancing their quality of life.

Trilogy incorporates sophisticated technology for shaping the radiation beam so that the dose of radiation is limited to the tumor region. By changing the beam shape over time while delivering the radiation, doctors achieve very fine control over how, and where, the radiation is administered. This system allows more exact treatments to be delivered, even when treating tumors that lie extremely close to critical anatomy like the heart, spinal cord, lung, rectum or salivary glands.

Trilogy incorporates a number of technologies for positioning patients accurately, including:

A special X-ray imager that is used to check the patient’s position prior to treatment and to monitor the position of the targeted area during treatment. This on-board imager can take CT-like images throughout the treatment session, tracking the movement of the tumor with each breath the patient takes.
An optical guidance system with infrared cameras that continuously monitor the patient’s position to provide therapists with real-time feedback about any changes in a patient’s position. Immediate adjustments can be made to the remote-controlled treatment couch to maintain the patient in the preferred position.
Respiratory gating system coordinates treatment with respiration, to compensate for tumor motion due to the patient’s breathing. This keeps the radiation beam focused on the tumor, and further protects normal healthy tissues.

Trilogy is used to deliver the widest range of external beam radiotherapies:

3D conformal radiotherapy (3D-CRT) – shapes the radiation beams to match the shape and contours of the tumor.
Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) – shapes the radiation dose within the beams to avoid critical organs.
Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) – precisely focuses multiple converging beams to deliver radiation treatment in single or multiple sessions.
Intensity-modulated radiosurgery (IMRS) – combines IMRT and SRS for highly-accurate neurosurgical treatments or for treating outside the brain, called extracranial treatments.