Top Cancer Hospitals in Denmark and Netherlands First in Europe to Treat Patients With RapidArc(TM) Ra...( New technology from Varian Medical ...)

New technology from Varian Medical Systems delivers faster image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) to target tumors while sparing more

healthy tissue

COPENHAGEN, Denmark and AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Doctors in Denmark and the Netherlands have successfully carried out Europe's first clinical treatments using advanced RapidArc(TM) technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR). Cancer patients at Copenhagen's Rigshospitalet and Amsterdam's VU University medical center became the first people in Europe to benefit from this advanced form of intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT).

Dr. Svend Aage Engelholm, chief radiation oncologist of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet), says, "Our first image guided RapidArc treatment went perfectly and the only unusual aspect was that the patient joined the clinical team in a celebratory glass of champagne after treatment. He was certainly aware that this was the first clinical treatment of its kind in Europe." Dr. Engelholm said the actual treatment took just 75 seconds to deliver.

The 60-year-old patient, who is half-way through his scheduled treatment cycle, had been receiving five-field image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and doctors decided to convert his treatment plan to RapidArc, which was commissioned on one of the hospital's Clinac(R) iX linear accelerators earlier in the week. "We knew that we would really be able to reduce the rectal dose to this patient by using RapidArc and, as it turned out, we reduced it by 15 percent," adds Dr. Engelholm. He added that, as of this week, RapidArc would be the hospital's standard treatment fo
'/>"/>