Varian Medical Systems' New Automated Treatment Console Expedites Radiotherapy Treatments for Cancer

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 24 Mar 2005 - 13:00 PDT


The new 4D Integrated Treatment Console from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) is speeding up cancer care by making it possible for doctors to deliver advanced forms of radiotherapy more quickly and cost-effectively. This technology, which is now installed in 450 treatment centers, is expediting delivery of treatments like SmartBeam™ IMRT (intensity modulated radiation therapy) and Dynamic Targeting™ IGRT (image-guided radiation therapy).

"It used to take us 20 minutes to deliver a seven-field prostate IMRT treatment, including daily imaging to verify a patient's position," said Randy Holt, PhD, chief medical physicist at the Enloe Medical Center in Chico, CA. "That's dropped down to well under 14 minutes."

Better Patient Care

According to Holt, the faster treatment times translate into better patient care. "When treatments are lengthy, there is more patient movement, and you don't want that," he said. "Minimizing patient motion is one of the most important things we can do. The bonus is that the patient is more comfortable with the entire process."

Holt says that there has been a 30 percent average reduction in the amount of time it takes clinicians to deliver a complex radiotherapy treatment at the Enloe Medical Center. "That has translated into a 15 percent improvement in overall department cost efficiency," he said. "Once we implemented the 4D Treatment Console, we eliminated therapists' overtime."

"Without question, treatments have been greatly expedited," said Roy Lowe, medical dosimetrist at Rock Hill Radiation Therapy Center in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "In the past, complicated eight- and nine-field IMRT head and neck treatments could take upwards of 30-40 minutes to deliver. With the 4D console, because of the automated field sequencing and the seamless flow of data in the integrated environment, we can easily execute these plans in 15 minutes. We do it every day."

Drawing patient data from Varian's VARiS Vision™ oncology information system, the 4D Integrated Treatment Console accomplishes these efficiencies by combining control of the many devices used to deliver complex radiation therapy treatments on a single workstation. Unlike earlier systems that loaded information one treatment field at a time during the treatment process, the console manages entire treatment plans or groups of plans, reducing the amount of time used to download information. In addition, the 4D console operates independently from a hospital's computer network, so that treatments can be completed even if network connections are lost during treatment, enhancing system reliability.

And according to Lowe, the 4D console offers additional features that are not available with any other radiotherapy technology on the market today. "Doctors can edit the treatment plan right at the console, based on what they are seeing at the moment of treatment," he said. "We can take image information from Varian's PortalVision™ imager or an On-Board™ Imager device and use it to make changes to the treatment plan right on the 4D console. The changes are automatically saved back into the database. That's true adaptive image-guided radiotherapy."

Expediting IMRT QA

Lowe is also excited about features that expedite IMRT QA-quality assurance-an essential process that has been cumbersome but necessary for ensuring that radiation doses are precisely targeted and deliverable. "We can easily verify that IMRT treatment files from the treatment planning system transferred properly to the VARiS Vision database, and we can do this visually, right at the 4D console, without having to exit out of VARiS Vision and bring up a different program," he explained.

"Recent advances in the field of radiation oncology have included sophisticated technologies for fine-tuning patient positioning and for image-guided tumor targeting. These developments added steps to the process of delivering radiation therapy, making it somewhat more complex," said Richard Stark, director of Varian's delivery systems product line. "Varian's new 4D console ties these technologies together in one intuitive and easy-to-use interface. It eliminates multi-tasking over several workstations, cuts out redundant data entry steps, and makes it possible to carry out complex treatments quickly and easily."

The 4D Integrated Treatment Console also enables clinicians to connect the Varian radiation therapy system with hardware and software accessories using a DICOM RT interface. It is part of Varian's Inspiration™ environment of seamlessly integrated radiation oncology tools for delivering advanced, image-guided radiation therapies.

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., (NYSE:VAR) of Palo Alto, California is the world's leading manufacturer of integrated cancer therapy systems, which are treating thousands of patients per day. The company is also a premier supplier of X-ray tubes and flat-panel digital subsystems for imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 3,300 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 55 sales and support offices around the world. Additional information is available at http://www.varian.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Statements in this press release regarding future business, events, plans, objectives, expectations, estimates, and other similar matters, including, but not limited to, statements using the terms "can execute," "can be completed," "can edit," "can take," "can use," "can verify," and "can do," and "makes possible," constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including, but not limited to, the risks described in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports filed from time to time by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements represent the Company's judgment as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements because of new information, future events, or otherwise.

FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:

Spencer Sias,
Vice President, Corporate Communications
1.650.424.5782
spencer.sias@varian.com

Meryl Ginsberg
Public Relations Manager
1.650.424.6444
meryl.ginsberg@varian.com

http://www.varian.com

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