Experts Assert That Varian Technologies Deliver Speed and Clinical Accuracy in Treating Cance...( BOSTON Sept. 24 /- Cancer treatme...),Health

BOSTON, Sept. 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cancer treatment specialists reported yesterday how new technologies are enabling them to provide faster, more accurate cancer treatments than was possible with earlier generations of radiotherapy technology. In presentations given at an "Emerging Technologies" Symposium sponsored by Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) in connection with the annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), doctors detailed how they are using RapidArc(TM) radiotherapy technology, as well as cone-beam CT (3-D) imaging to offer their patients highly-accurate and more comfortable cancer treatments.

The symposium presentations began with Clif Ling, PhD, a renowned expert in the fields of medical physics and radiation oncology. In his talk entitled "Affirming the past -- anticipating the future -- comments during the 50th Anniversary of ASTRO" he provided a history of the technological advances, many of which were provided by Varian, that have led to improved clinical outcomes and increased survival among cancer patients treated with radiotherapy. According to Ling, the technical advances in radiation oncology can be summarized in four categories:

1) Improvements in imaging, which made it possible to see a tumor and its

surrounding normal tissues, and to create treatment plans based on a

patient's unique anatomy.

2) Advances in the design and optimization of treatment plans, thanks to

computer algorithms that work with volumetric (3-D) CT image data to

calculate an optimal way of delivering the desired radiation dose in

three dimensions.

3) Improvements to treatment delivery systems, including sophisticated
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