The Cancer Care Center

Trilogy IGRT System

St. Anthony's Cancer Care Center uses the Trilogy™ Stereotactic Image-Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) System, which is the most advanced, sophisticated machine of its type in the world.

The Trilogy System at St. Anthony’s

The Trilogy system combines imaging and treatment technologies to deliver the widest range of external beam radiation therapy for cancer and neurosurgical treatments. This advanced radiation treatment is built around an advanced medical linear accelerator, a machine that rotates 360 degrees around you to deliver radiotherapy treatments from many angles. The advanced accelerator is able to deliver higher doses of radiation to smaller areas during a shorter period of time.

The Trilogy system incorporates sophisticated technologies for shaping the radiation beam so that the dose of radiation is limited to the area of abnormality. By changing the beam shape over time while delivering the radiation, doctors achieve precise control over how and where the radiation is delivered.

How the Trilogy IGRT System Works

Stereotactic radiosurgery can be used to treat many kinds of tumors, particularly tumors in the brain. Your neurosurgeon will determine whether you are a candidate for this kind of surgery or if a more traditional, open approach would be more effective.

Here’s what to expect when undergoing stereotactic radiosurgery:

Your neurosurgeon plans the treatment along with a radiation oncologist (a cancer specialist who is an expert in radiation therapy).
Your medical team targets the specific areas in your body, which need the treatment.
The planning is done through a series of MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging scans.)
Following the MRI, you receive the treatment.
After the treatment, you go through another series of MRI to determine whether you need another course of treatment.

Stereotactic Radiosurgery

Stereotactic radiosurgery can be used in conjunction with surgery to shrink the tumor. Sometimes, it is used before the surgery, to make the tumor operable; sometimes it is used after surgery, to destroy the remaining cancer cells.

There are many benefits to this approach, including:

Radiotherapy can be more effective at treating disease.
Side effects of radiation are reduced.
Smaller lesions can be treated more quickly, easily and effectively.
Patients can breathe naturally during the treatment, reducing stress and increasing comfort.
Radiotherapy can be used to treat more different types of cancer, which means that more patients can be spared the invasive techniques of surgery and/or chemotherapy.

For information about St. Anthony's Cancer Care Center - St. Louis, please call 314-ANTHONY (268-4669) or 800-554-9550 or visit find a physician online.

At St. Anthony's, our vision is to be the area's premier health care organization
— and your first choice for health care services.