Radiation therapy is also entering new disease spaces, such as skin cancer, where it can now be used to remove lesions without leaving a scar.

4. Consistency counts

Even when all of a facility's linacs or CT scanners are created equal, variance can still slip in. That's where new software for treatment planning can be a big help.

"If you listen to radiation oncologists, they'll tell you that not all draw contours the same way, and some are better with different parts of the body," said Hugh Bettesworth, CEO of Mirada Medical. Mirada announced a new software package at ASTRO that can be used to auto-contour a CT image used in radiation therapy planning.

Manufacturers are also working to help smaller facilities better employ the technology that's already been mastered by the country's largest and most advanced hospitals.

Varian showed a new piece of software called Rapid Plan that's currently 501(k) pending. It creates a treatment plan design that oncologists can then edit to fit their needs.

"You work with default models based on clinical evaluators from places like Duke and Washington University," said Paul Yokoyama, user experience designer and analyst at Varian.

Users can then submit their work to potentially be part of the software's "knowledge database" in the future.

For customers with discontinued Siemens linear accelerators, the company announced a collaboration with Varian that will help customers transition to new technology only when they're ready.

"Now, they won't have to learn a whole new system from scratch," said Meryl Ginsberg, public relations manager at Varian.

5. Looking beyond patient survival

As ASTRO president Colleen Lawton told DOTmed News back in September, quality of life, rather than just cancer survival, will be a significant focus of the show. Studies looked at how patients can retain memory after receiving radiation to the brain, and how cancer patients with depression can get help for the emotional problems no amount of radiation can fix.

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