Clinicians in Netherlands Treat Lung Cancer Patients Using New RapidArc Radiotherapy Technology from Varian Medic...( AMSTERDAM Netherlands Oct. 14 /- ...),Health

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Doctors in the Netherlands have used RapidArc technology from Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) to treat four early stage lung cancer patients in what is believed to be among the world's first treatments of their kind. Clinicians at VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam now plan to replace conventional stereotactic radiotherapy treatments with RapidArc for all such patients.

A 57-year-old male, diagnosed with a 1.2cm diameter non-small cell lung tumor in the right upper lobe and deemed unfit for surgery as a result of severe emphysema, was the first patient to receive the pioneering radiotherapy treatment at the hospital in early September.

"We normally use ultra-precise stereotactic radiotherapy in these cases and we have now treated more than 400 such patients in this way," said Dr. Ben Slotman, chairman of the hospital's department of radiation oncology. "But RapidArc offers some real time-savings over stereotactic radiotherapy and its use in this case is a real breakthrough for us and our patients."

The pioneering treatment was delivered in less than 15 minutes versus the 30 to 45 minutes normally needed by the team at VU University Medical Center to treat lungs with image-guided intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The treatment was delivered using six arcs -- or rotations -- of the treatment machine around the patient. RapidArc delivers a volumetric radiotherapy treatment in a single or multiple arcs of the treatment machine around the patient.

"We were very pleased with how the treatment went," added Dr. Suresh Sunan, professor of clinical experimental radiotherapy. "The online patient setup using cone beam CT scans allowed direct visualiz
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