Varian's RapidArc Radiotherapy Technology Enables Pioneering Cancer Treatments at Top Dutch Oncology Center
June 18 2009 - 8:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
AMSTERDAM, June 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Doctors in the
Netherlands have developed new ways to perform radiosurgery on
benign acoustic tumors using fast and precise RapidArc(TM)
radiotherapy technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE:VAR).
This is among the findings in several papers published by the team
at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. Radiation oncologist
Dr. Frank Lagerwaard and his team compared RapidArc with five-arc
dynamic conformal arc radiosurgery for vestibular schwannoma, a
benign tumor that affects hearing and balance. "Treatment delivery
time after patient setup was less than five minutes versus 20
minutes for dynamic conformal arc radiosurgery," says Dr.
Lagerwaard. "We found that RapidArc planning was completed within
30 minutes in all cases." His team found that the RapidArc plans
consistently achieved greater conformity and a reduction in areas
of low-dose irradiation compared to conventional radiosurgery.
"This, together with the benefits of shorter treatment times,
allows us to replace our conventional five-arc radiosurgery
technique for vestibular schwannomas with RapidArc," added Dr.
Lagerwaard. 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 intensity-modulated
radiotherapy (IMRT) 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. Cancer patients at VU University
Medical Center are treated on two Varian Clinac(R) 2300 CD linear
accelerators, a Trilogy(R) linear accelerator, and the Novalis
Tx(TM) radiosurgical suite of products, all equipped with RapidArc
capability. The clinical team has published scientific papers on
early RapidArc treatments, including research comparing RapidArc
volumetric modulated arc therapy with conventional IMRT, in peer
review journals. Dr. Ben Slotman, chairman of the hospital's
department of radiation oncology, says, "In the past we treated
about fifteen percent of patients with IMRT but now use RapidArc
for a much larger number of IMRT indications. In addition to
standard head and neck and prostate treatments, a range of new
indications, such as whole brain radiotherapy with simultaneous
boost to multiple brain metastases, pelvic tumors and small lung
tumors are now being treated with RapidArc. "Our experience so far
is that RapidArc planning and delivery is considerably faster than
alternative methods," added Dr. Slotman. "We are expanding the
range of cancers for which we use RapidArc and we believe we can
replace our full stereotactic radiotherapy program with RapidArc,
just as has happened with IMRT." Previous findings by Dr. Wilko
Verbakel, medical physicist, describing how RapidArc plans could
deliver better dose distributions than is achievable with
conventional IMRT for head and neck tumors in less than three
minutes, has now been substantiated by actual clinical data on more
than 100 such patients who have received RapidArc for this
indication. Similarly, a publication in production on small primary
lung tumors by Dr. Verbakel describes how clinical delivery of
RapidArc for stereotactic radiotherapy could be completed in as
little as ten minutes. In the year since RapidArc was installed at
VU University Medical Center, more than 300 cancer patients have
been treated using this fast and precise treatment technology. "VU
University Medical Center was one of the first hospitals in the
world to introduce RapidArc a year ago and to my knowledge no other
hospital has treated as many patients with this technique," says
Rolf Staehelin, Varian's European marketing director. "Our sincere
congratulations to everyone in the team at VU for making this
happen so quickly. They are carrying out some pioneering work that
is making radiotherapy treatments faster and more precise."
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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