A novel and innovative device to retract rectum during radiation therapy of pelvic tumors

An effective radiotherapy treatment entails maximizing radiation dose to the tumor while sparing the surrounding and normal tissues. With the advent of SBRT with extreme hypo‐fractionation in treating tumors including prostate where ablative dose is delivered in smaller number of fractions, rectum remains a dose‐limiting organ and at the risk of rectal toxicity or secondary cancer. The same limitation of rectal toxicity exists for high‐dose rate (HDR) treatments of cervical, endometrial, or prostate cancer when creating even a short distance between the anterior rectal wall and field of radiation is ideal in delivering ablative dose to the target. An effective solution to such problem is to physically displace rectum as the organ at risk. This research presents an organ retractor device that is designed to displace the rectum away from the path of radiation beam employing a Nitinol shape memory alloy that is designed for displacing the rectum upon actuation. A control system regulates the motion in a reproducible and safe manner by creating the desirable shape in moving the anterior rectal wall. The study finds the novel organ retractor device to be a promising tool that can be applied in a clinical setting for minimizing dose to the rectum during treatment of pelvic tumors, and creating the potential to deliver an ablative dose to tumor volume or to escalate the dose when needed.