Prostate Cancer Patient Receives First RapidArc Radiotherapy Treatment at Major Danish Hospital
June 17 2009 - 8:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
HERLEV, Denmark, June 17 /PRNewswire/ -- A leading Danish cancer
hospital has treated its first patient using RapidArc(R)
radiotherapy after installing eight advanced radiotherapy treatment
machines from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE:VAR) of Palo Alto,
California. Herlev Hospital, to the north-west of Copenhagen,
delivered the fast and efficient RapidArc treatment to a prostate
cancer patient using a Clinac(R) iX linear accelerator. The
treatment comes just two years after the hospital selected Varian
to replace its entire treatment machine and software infrastructure
because the equipment was unable to carry out advanced image-guided
treatments. "We are delighted with the rapidity of implementation,"
says Poul Geertsen, head of radiotherapy at Herlev Hospital. "The
transition from our previous equipment to an overall Varian
solution has been smooth and has enabled us to be among the first
hospitals in Europe to offer RapidArc treatments." "All our
treatment personnel were pleased with the speed and ease of the
first treatment and the patient responded well," adds Brian Holch
Kristensen, chief physicist. "We now have RapidArc capability on
six of our eight linear accelerators and we hope to soon routinely
carry out more prostate treatments before expanding our RapidArc
program to include other pelvic and head & neck treatments."
RapidArc delivers a precise and efficient treatment in single or
multiple arcs of the treatment machine around the patient and makes
it possible to deliver image-guided IMRT times two to eight times
faster than is possible with conventional IMRT. Faster treatments
allow for greater precision, since there is less chance of patient
or tumor movement during treatment delivery and, with less time on
the treatment couch, also allow for greater patient comfort.
"Without any previous experience with RapidArc we successfully
treated the first patient within two weeks of the RapidArc
installation," adds David Sjostrom, deputy chief physicist. "In
order to routinely replace today's standard IMRT treatments with
RapidArc for all treatment sites, we now need to strengthen our
collaboration with Varian and other RapidArc users. In the future,
we are hoping RapidArc will prove to be the best choice of
treatment both in terms of delivery time and quality." Herlev
Hospital carries out 48,000 radiation treatments per annum,
treating 3,000 new patients each year. All eight Varian
accelerators at Herlev, ordered in May 2007, are equipped with the
On-Board Imager(R) device for modern, real-time image guidance,
which is integral to RapidArc treatments. IGRT enables clinicians
to pinpoint the position of the tumor at the time of treatment,
allowing more precise treatments and potentially fewer side
effects. "Clinicians at Herlev wanted us to enable them to offer
patients advanced image-guided treatments when Varian machines and
software were selected to replace their previous equipment two
years ago and I am very pleased that we have been able to meet
their expectations of us," adds Sten Hornsleth, Varian's
Scandinavian country manager. "Herlev Hospital is now offering
radiotherapy treatments that are among the most advanced in the
world, which is good news for cancer patients in Denmark."
Editorial contact: Neil Madle, Varian Medical Systems, +44 7786
526068 About Varian Medical Systems Varian Medical Systems, Inc.,
of Palo Alto, California, is the world's leading manufacturer of
medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical
conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and
brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for
managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and
medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes
and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and
industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products
for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical
Systems employs approximately 5,100 people who are located at
manufacturing sites in North America, China, and Europe and in its
79 sales and support offices around the world. For more
information, visit http://www.varian.com/ DATASOURCE: Varian
Medical Systems, Inc. CONTACT: Neil Madle of Varian Medical
Systems, +44 7786 526068 Web Site: http://www.varian.com/
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