Five Advanced Varian Linear Accelerators Selected For Key Danish Cancer Centers

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Radiology / Nuclear Medicine;  Medical Devices / Diagnostics;  MRI / PET / Ultrasound
Article Date: 24 Aug 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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Two leading Danish cancer centers have selected five state of the art medical linear accelerators from Varian Medical Systems to replace aging equipment and offer patients more advanced radiotherapy treatments as part of a national program to reduce waiting times for patients.

With the Danish government ruling that the period from diagnosis to treatment should not exceed four weeks, Denmark is currently making a large investment in its radiotherapy infrastructure. If the four week deadline is not met by hospitals, patients are free to seek treatment outside the country.

Three Clinac(R) linear accelerators will be supplied to Aalborg University Hospital in the northern region of Denmark, while Aarhus University Hospital, in Jutland, has ordered two Clinac iX machines with On-Board Imager(R) devices for advanced image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) just a few months after ordering Denmark's first Trilogy(R) all-in-one linear accelerator. The orders for the five Clinac accelerators were placed in June.

At Aalborg University Hospital, two of the new machines will replace aging equipment and the third will add new capacity, leaving the center with five treatment machines in total. "We see great advantage in having five identical and fully compatible linear accelerators in our department," says Dr. Jesper Carl, chief physicist at Aalborg University Hospital. "We know that Varian machines are very stable and they are well integrated with our planning and information management systems." He said the new equipment would enable the hospital to expand its robust IGRT and IMRT (intensity modulated radiotherapy) programs.

Lars Praestegaard, technical manager in Aarhus University Hospital's department of medical physics, said the new accelerators would also enable clinicians to expand their IGRT program, which helps to improve the precision of treatments by tracking and adjusting for tumor motion. Their IGRT program is currently active for a number of cancer treatments, primarily for prostate and head/neck tumors.

"We utilize the On-Board Imager system for online guidance using implanted gold seeds for all treatments of prostate cancer," he said. "We also use cone-beam CT to verify tumor shrinkage for adaptive radiotherapy for head/neck patients, as well as CBCT-guided cranial stereotactic radiotherapy."

The Trilogy accelerator, due to be installed in September, will be used equally for research and clinical treatments such as cranial stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT), stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and image-guided adaptive radiotherapy (IGART).

"We are delighted that these two university hospitals have selected Varian equipment for treating cancer patients in their respective regions," says Sten Hornsleth, Varian's Scandinavian regional manager. "Coupled with Varian's selection for significant projects in Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet and Herlev) and Hospital South (Naestved) earlier this year, these decisions reiterate the Danish oncology community's belief in Varian machines as the optimum way to deliver precise, fast and advanced radiotherapy treatments."

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 4,400 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 60 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com.

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Varian Medical Systems, Inc.
http://www.varian.com