Prostate Cancer Patient in Montpellier Becomes First Cancer Patient in France Treated with Varian's RapidArc(TM) Ra...( MONTPELLIER France Dec. 4 /- A 60-yea...)

MONTPELLIER, France, Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A 60-year-old prostate cancer patient from Montpellier has become the first person in France to be treated using RapidArc(TM) technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) for fast and precise forms of intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Each of his treatments at the CRLC Val D'Aurelle - Paul Lamarque in the city took just 75 seconds, several times faster than conventional IMRT treatments. Dr. Pascal Fenoglietto, the hospital's chief medical physicist for scientific projects, presented the case to colleagues at the annual meeting of the French Society of Radiation Oncologists (SFRO) in Paris from November 12- 14.

"The treatments went extremely well and the patient was very pleased because compared to conventional IMRT it was three times quicker," Dr. Fenoglietto said. "We are now able to use the time we save on treatment delivery to take more images and increase the quality of our care."

"The radiation therapists were also very pleased because it is a simpler treatment for them to deliver," added Professor Jean-Bernard Dubois, head of the radiation oncology department and managing director of the hospital.

With RapidArc, Varian's Clinac(R) medical linear accelerator can target radiation beams at a tumor while making one continuous rotation around the patient. Conventional IMRT treatments are slower and more difficult for radiotherapy radiographers because they target tumors using a complex sequence of fixed beams from multiple angles.

RapidArc technology allows more control to conform the dose more closely to the size, shape, and location of the tumor. Faster treatment also contributes to precision by reducing the time for motion within the anatomy, and laboratory studies suggest that faster dose delivery kills cancer cells more e
'/>"/>